Running
by Hearttoheart25
Summary: Set after 4x23- Stefan is still stuck in the safe in the lake. Damon and elena are together and both don't know about stefan. They think he's just gone because elena chose damon. What happens when silas impersonates Stefan and goes to the same college as Stefan? Will everyone believe him? If Stefan gets out of the safe, will he ever be the same? Mostly Stelena.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1-

**Stefan's P.O.V**

That feeling of being drowned over and over again never left me. It couldn't leave me. I was still trapped. I'd wake up to the feel of cool water against my skin. Darkness all around me. I couldn't breathe and every breath I tried to take burned.

And it was not only that feeling but also the thirst. I was hungry. I needed blood. My throat burned at the thought. I pushed harder on the sealed door but with no luck. I tried again and again. How could this happen? Why?

And with all these thoughts in my head, the one that came back again and again was her. She was all I could think about. Her voice echoed in my head, the same words over and over again, cutting into me deeper and deeper.

"I'm in love with you... Damon."

I let out a frustrated sigh. That was a mistake. I choked on the water. My throat felt like it was on fire, there was nothing to inhale. I pushed harder and harder on the door. I needed to get out. Come on! I thought and then before I knew it, darkness overcame me.

**Elena P.O.V**

It was the same dream over and over again. We were metres apart. Staring at each other. It was like we were having a staring competition. Who would break first? Although, I already knew the answer to that... I had broken him. He smiled at me but I could tell there was pain behind his eyes. Those green eyes. The eyes I feel in love with so long ago.

But I had picked his brother. I loved his brother. And in that moment it was his brother that made me feel alive... But didn't Stefan as well? Didn't I love Stefan as well? How could I choose between them? ... But I did. Did I regret the decision? Maybe... But I had to give it a try with Damon at least. Urgh! Why couldn't this just be easy?

I stared out the window to the emptiness of the outside. It was just passed one in the morning. I could hear the slow breathing of Damon. He was fast asleep.

Everything was right... Or it should have been. I had Damon, Jeremy was back and Silas was gone. But it didn't feel right, Stefan was still gone to god knows where. I wanted to find him but I had to stop myself each time.. I knew I had hurt him in more ways then one when I had chosen his brother and now I had to let him go... But how could I? I was way too selfish for my own being.

Just then I felt a pair of arms go around me.

"You could have woken me up?" Damon said as he kissed my cheek and then kissed my neck.

"Mmm... I thought you could use some rest" I told him, lying to him.

How could I tell him I was thinking about his brother? I couldn't.

He laughed, "We don't need sleep."

I turned to look at him. His eyes were sparkling blue. I'd never seen him this happy before; maybe it was because he finally got me? His arms around me felt safe, it felt good... But not as good as Stefan's.

"Urgh" I accidentally said out loud. He raised one eyebrow. I kissed him just so I wouldn't have to say anything and so I wouldn't be thinking about anything. The kiss was slow; I could feel myself being backed up against a wall. His body pressing on mine.

"Let's get back in bed so I can say goodbye to you all over again. Or you know what? You don't have to go to college and I wouldn't have to say goodbye, and we could be in bed forever."

I laughed at what he said as he pulled back into a kiss.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for the reviews so quickly! Sorry I can't reply as I just made my account and says I have to wait 24 hours… but I'm glad you like it! I'll try my best to update as soon as possible (: this is chapter 2! I might be adding a new character…**

**Elena's P.O.V**

"Are you sure you want to go? Last chance. You can stay here in this nice warm bed with me all day, everyday" he said patting the spot next to him on the bed, "or you can go to college and study and not have me around to have fun"

"Hmmm.." I took a long pause to make him think like I was thinking about it. Although, I do have to admit; it did look appealing. "I think I am going to have to go with… college," I said with a laugh.

He was suddenly next to me, wrapping his arms around me. "You're no fun". He bent down kissing me. I pulled him closer towards me as his arms held me tighter.

"Oh come on guys, you've been doing that all day everyday, my sister will be late if she doesn't hurry her ass down to the car now" I pulled away from Damon and smiled. Jeremy was back. It felt so good to say even if it was in my head. "What's that look for?" he asked raising his eyebrows.

"Can't I just miss my brother?" I said walking towards him and hugging him. He was alive. When I see Bonnie I will definitely thank her! Actually on that thought, she hasn't replied to any of my texts or calls. Jeremy had said that she had gone on holiday to clear her head after everything that happened and I completely understand after the year we have all had. But wouldn't she call? Or at least text? Something wasn't right.

Before I could think more about it there was an annoying beeping sound going off every second.

"I better go before Caroline breaks the horn on her car" I said while Jeremy laughed and Damon cracked a smile.

I quickly hugged Jeremy telling him I would be back on the weekend. I looked at Damon and he gave me a slow but passionate kiss. His grip wound tighter around me.

"Damon, I have to go," I groaned as he held me tightly.

"Can't you just go another day? You have centuries to go to college, why start now?" he groaned back at me.

"I also have centuries to be with you," I told him. He smiled at the part where I said I had centuries with him, "If I don't go now, I'll never go" I said pushing him away. With one last goodbye, I left them walking down the stairs and towards the annoyed blonde in the car.

I walked to her car slowly, annoying her even more. I could have used my super speed but nah...

" What took you so long?" She asked exasperated as I got into the car. My bags were already in the car waiting like Caroline was. Luckily there were only two of us because our baggage was filled to the edge of the car. "And if it has something to do with you, Damon and the bed please don't tell me. I don't want to have to burn my ears off before college"

I laughed and said, "Well, I guess I have nothing to say then." She groaned at me and I laughed even more. And then she gave me a look. I sighed, "what?" I knew that it was going to be something about Damon. She never liked him; I mean I couldn't blame her. After what he did to her, she had every right. But couldn't she just be happy for me?

There was a silent pause. It looked like what she was going to say was the hardest thing for her. "I know I said that Stefan was your epic love and I'm not saying that I take that back but you do look happy. And I am happy for you." She said all to quickly, "But I still think that Stefan is your epic love."

Stefan… I could feel my heart just stop at the sound of his name. I knew Caroline could tell that something was wrong because she automatically changed the subject.

"Wait… I know I shouldn't ask this. I mean I have no right after everything I've done to him… but have you heard from him?" I said trying not to say his name. I knew she would know whom I was talking about. I looked down so I wouldn't have to see the look on her face. Stefan and her had become so close and I knew she already didn't agree with my decision.

"No, sorry." She said with a small smile. "But I'm sure he's fine." She tried to reassure me but I could see the concern in her eyes. She didn't quite believe it herself.

But that was it about Stefan and then she talked about how this year was going to be the start of a new life. No Silas, Klaus was gone (although I'm not too sure she was happy about that), Tyler hadn't come back yet (She was definitely not happy about that) and she said the parties were going to be ten times better then high school ones.

**3 hours later…**

After hearing Caroline's music and her babble on about how great college would be, I was glad to be finally standing to the entrance of the Whitmore College. Not that I didn't like Caroline's music or her talking but hearing it for three hours straight… I did not know anyone could speak for that long! I smiled at that thought. Caroline had a knack for talking constantly but that's why I loved her. There would be no awkward silences with her.

I looked around, the college was buzzing with people. People sitting on the green grass laughing, or walking around, there were also people handing out flyers about god knows what. Caroline clapped excitedly next to me. Her grin was from ear to ear. She went on about going to find our dorm rooms and something about leaving our bags in the car until we know where we are. Before I knew it, she was gone and I was standing like an idiot gawking at the size of the place. Should I stay and wait for her or wonder? I decided to wonder around the place. She would find me or call me when she knew what dorm rooms we were in.

There were buildings left, right and centre. Some looked old and some looked like they were built last year. Although, there were heaps of buildings, the school was so open with all the grass area. Luckily I was a vampire and didn't get tired easily or else I wouldn't make it living here! As I walked along, I swear I had at least about 20 flyers in my hands asking if I wanted to join a particular group. There was a cheerleading squad; I have to remind Caroline about that! She would love that.

I stopped dead in my tracks. That honey blonde hair, the chiseled jaw line, it couldn't be! I would have thought he would have been on the other side of the world by now. Maybe somewhere in Australia with the kangaroos and koalas. But definitely not here. He was talking and laughing with some girl. She had dark brown hair, almost black and she looked stunning even though she was wearing shorts and a top. My heart sank as they laughed together. I took a deep breath. Elena, pull it together! I thought to myself. He had every right to talk to another girl but it still made my stomach turn at the sight of them laughing and smiling together. I mean who was she anyway?

"We're roomies!" I heard a squeal as someone hugged me from behind interrupting my thoughts. I could already tell it was Caroline. "Elena?" she called but I kept staring at him. And then he turned to look at me. He must have heard Caroline. It was like my dreams as our eyes met one and another except for him smiling he just looked blankly at me. It felt like his eyes were sinking into my skin towards my soul. "Is that Stefan?!" She said squinting at the figure. And I just nodded blankly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys, this chapter might be a little weird. I decided to add a new character to the story. She's going to become more important in the later chapters and you'll find out what secret she's keeping later as well… If you don't like the character please review and tell me but i do hope you like it! (:**

**Anna's P.O.V**

"Hello Anna" I heard someone say behind me. Goosebumps ran up my arms. I stopped where I was, holding my breath. Oh god. "Long time no see." I turned around to see the familiar cold grin on his face. It looked like it was implanted on his face because ever since I'd met him late last year. "You know, I've been trying to look for you all summer. Have to admit, you and your family are good at hiding. But I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to go out in public... Didn't your family warn you?" He said staring down at me. His eyes cold as day. I felt them penetrating passed my eyes, into my mind. Seeking. Seeking for something and failing. "Or were you stupid enough to think I'd actually stop looking."

I kept a smile plastered on my face. I could see from the corner of my eyes people looking at us.

"Who said I was hiding? Are you sure you looked hard enough?" I said back at him.

He laughed, "Enough with this. I get why you hid. I am probably your worst nightmare. But nightmares go away. And this one will too if you just tell me."

I laughed a cold laugh, "you think I'm an idiot? You'll kill me and my family the minute you find out." I said staring back at him. And then I smiled. "But you know what I found out. You can't kill me. You need me. You wouldn't dare risk it."

There was a silence. "You're right." He said to me simply. He moved his hand close to my face, brushing the dark brown hair out of my eyes. I shivered at his touch "But you know what I can do? Is I can kill each and every one of your friends. I might kill them in different ways just to make it interesting." His voice was getting lower and lower. Until it got to a whisper. "And then when I'm done with your friends. I'll hunt down your family. One by one until you tell me. And trust me, I will do it." He then smirked at me, "I might just start off with your new room mate." I kept a calm expression on my face but I could tell my eyes said it all. I was scared. I knew what this man in front of me was capable of. Was I stupid enough to risk it and keep the secret safe? Or do I tell him and let the beginning of the end occur.

His head snapped to the side. His attention was focused on something else. Or more like someone else. It was a brunette girl and a blonde girl. The blonde girl was jumping around and the brunette was staring straight at him. Did she know who he was?

Just then I felt something push passed me and grab a hold of the man in front of me. I looked up to see the blonde girl hugging the man.

"Stefan, your back! I knew you would be back!" She said grinning, "I was so worried! I thought you had left and were never coming back. And then i thought something had happened because you didn't say goodbye to anyone. And now I'm just so happy to see you!" She said pulling him back into a hug.

My eyes widened. What did she say? Who was this Stefan person?

He smiled a warm smile but I could see the coldness behind his eyes. "Of course, I wouldn't miss my hundredth time of college. And you as well. I wouldn't leave without saying goodbye to you." He said.

I just looked in confusion and horror. What just happened? The brunette girl walked passed me and smiled at the man.

"It's good to see you Elena," he said returning the smile.

"You too, Stefan. I'm-" she started but he stopped her before she could go on.

"Don't. I'm happy for you and Damon. You both deserve to be happy," he said and his smile got wider. She looked at him bewildered like she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

She snapped out of it and then said "Thanks. Always the gentleman."

He then looked at me and said pointing to the two girls, "This is Caroline, my friend, and Elena, my brothers girlfriend." I nodded in there direction as he introduced them. "And this is Anna, my new friend." I smiled at them.

"It's very nice to meet you guys." I said smiling at both of them, "Well, it seems like you guys have a lot to catch up with so I'll just leave." I said hoping that this would work. I didn't want to be anywhere near him. I still had goosebumps on my arm and they didn't look like they were going away anytime soon with hime around.

"It's good to meet you to." The girl, Caroline, said with a smile. Elena just nodded at me.

I smiled at them and said goodbye, leaving as fast as I could.

Before I could get anywhere, something grabbed my arm, twisting it and pulling me towards them. I tried to yank my hand out of their hold but they were too strong. I turned around to be face to face with him.

"What do you want, Silas? Or should I say Stefan? Isn't it tiring impersonating other people? Being someone your not?" I asked him looking him straight in the eye. I didn't want to give him the upper hand. I didn't want to give him more power then he already had.

"You know what I want," He breathed into my ear, "And I won't stop until I get it." He threatened. He pulled away, letting go of my arm. His touch left marks on my arm. He smiled at me, "Well, you have a nice day." He said walking off back to Caroline and Elena. I stared after him. I was now not only scared for myself and the people I loved but those two girls. They seemed blissfully unaware of who he was. Did they really not know?


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys, thanks for the reviews (: I don't know much about American college as don't live in America but if anyone could help me out? I was thinking of doing more P.O.V other then Elena's, Stefan's and Anna's, tell me what you think. Thanks (: this is chapter 4 and I might not be updating for a week due to exams...**

Elena p.o.v

It had been two weeks since our first day of college. I had met people in a few of my classes but I still didn't quite know anyone to call them a friend so fast. The only friend I had in college was Caroline... And maybe Stefan. But every time I had seen Stefan lately, he was always with that girl. Did he like her? Was he falling in love with her? No, Elena! You're thinking too much! They're just friends, right? I thought to myself.

But there was something not right. Stefan didn't seem right. There was something about him that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Even Caroline picked it up but I don't think she cared too much. I think she was just glad to have her friends all back. And on that note, Bonnie hasn't been here for the last two weeks. I was starting to get worried. She wasn't replying or calling me back. Where the hell was she?

I stared into blankly into the dark blue lake in front of me. It was surrounded by trees and the only noise I heard was the birds chirping in the trees. I had found this place in the first week of college. I had been wandering around in between classes, not wanting to go back to our dorm room. Caroline would have been there with her new friend, Anna. I had thought that bitterly and mentally slapped myself for it. Anna seemed to be a nice girl but there was something I didn't trust about her... Or was it just that Stefan was moving on with his life and with her?

I got up off the grass and started walking back to my dorm room. The only thing I hated but this place was that it made me think too much. Think about all the things that I didn't want to think about.

I took my time walking back as it was a Friday, which meant that I didn't have classes, and also Caroline didn't have any classes as well. She would probably be with Stefan and Anna somewhere. Hoping that that somewhere wasn't in my room.

Just as I was about to open the door, something grabbed me. I twisted around, grabbing their arm and I smashed them up against the wall, holding them there. They didn't seem to fight back, which was weird.

"I love it when you do that." He smirked. "You know how I like it rough."

I knew that dark hair, blue eyes and of course that smirk anywhere.

"Damon, what are you doing here?" I asked surprised. I let go of him and his hands grabbed at my waist, pulling me closer to him. He pulled me into a kiss.

I didn't know how long we were making out for but we were suddenly interrupted by a loud huff.

"Please, get a room! And I mean another room, not our room! I do not want to have to those images in my head every time I walk into the room!" I heard Caroline scream at us. As she walked up she had her hands on her hips and her blonde hair was flowing behind her.

"Aw, and we were going to ask you to join us." He said back with his eyes twinkling.

"Urgh!" She groaned as I laughed. She calmed down after a bit and excitedly said, "anyway, there's a party down by the lake and we are all invited! ... Well except you Damon since you are a bit old to be hanging around college students."

"Hey! I could be mistaken for a college student. And even if I wasn't, I am a stud so who wouldn't want me at the party?" He scoffed.

"Who would want you at the party?" She said back at him and I laughed.

"My girlfriend." He said and I could feel his arms tightening around me. Before I could say something, I saw that familiar figure walking towards us. I moved out of Damon's arm quickly so he wouldn't see. I could see a crease appearing on Damon's head but as soon as I saw it, it had disappeared. "Hello little brother."

"Hey Damon," he said with a smile, " I was wondering if you guys were going tonight? It will be a blast," he said looking at both Caroline and me. "You should come too since you're here, Damon. Don't want Elena here to be alone." He looked at Damon.

The confusion on Damon's face mirrored mine and also Caroline's. Did he not care that Damon and I were together? I mean that's good... But I couldn't help having this sinking feeling in my chest.

"Yea we are." Caroline said quickly to cover up the silence.

"Good, I'll see all of you there then." He said with a smile but there was something behind that smile. I didn't know what it was but I didn't like it either.

He walked back the way he came and waved at us. As he turned the corner Damon said, "you didn't tell me my brother was back?" I could hear the pain in his tone. Was it because he wanted to know where his brother had been all this time or because I didn't tell him?

"It just slipped my mind." I lied. I hate lying to him.

He didn't say anything back.

**4 hours later...**

I had just finished getting ready for the party. I walked out of the bathroom in a tight black dress. It wasn't too short but it wasn't long either. I saw Damon's eyes pop out of his head and I smiled.

"We don't have to go to the party, we can just stay here all night." He said looking like he was undressing me with his eyes.

"I'm still here!" Caroline groaned, "Elena, if he decides to come more often, I'm going to have to decide to get a new room mate."

I laughed shaking my head at her. This was so Caroline. Although, I did understand. If it were she and Tyler shacking it up in our room I would want to get another room. I didn't say that to her face because Tyler still was gone. No one knew where he was.

We all walked down towards the lake. The peaceful area that I had been before was now filled with drunken people and loud music. Damon quickly told me he was getting a drink and Caroline went off to say hi to some of her new friends. I was left alone and just stood there.

"I thought Damon would be with you." I heard a voice near my ear. I turned around to see Stefan with a drink in his hand.

"He just went to go get a drink." I told him. "So where's Anna?" I asked him trying to hide the curiosity.

He shrugged as we just stood there. He offered some of his drink to me but I just shook my head.

I could see his eyes scanning the area looking for someone. And then they stopped and a smile spread on his face. I remember when he used to look at me like that. I missed that. But I was with Damon now and I should not be jealous of his brother.

His eyes were lingering on a girl. She had a dark blue dress, which hugged her, emphasizing all her curves. She as long skinny legs and I felt like I was wearing rags compared to her.

"Excuse me." He told me as he started walking towards her. I couldn't help but envy Anna.

Time was going by rather slowly. Stefan and Anna were god knows where. Caroline stopped by every 5 minutes but people kept talking to her. Damon was standing near the drinks. I didn't dare go near him, scared about the conversation we would have. No doubt it would be on Stefan and why I didn't tell him. Maybe I should just call it a night?

That's when I heard a loud pitch scream. It echoed through the cold air.

"Help, help!" The girl screamed out. The people near her were too drunk to think. I rushed up next to her putting my hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"Take a deep breath." I told her, compelling her. She was hyperventilating. "Now tell me what's wrong." I could feel Damon and Caroline next to me. There was a crowd starting together all around us.

"There's... There's a-a body!" She cried and pointed to somewhere in the trees. Caroline consoled her as the rest of us went to where she pointed.

As we walked closer and closer to the spot, I moved closer to Damon. I felt his arm go around me. Was this a vampire attack? Was there more of us out here? I didn't dwell on it too long as I saw a dark figure lying on the ground. As we got closer, I heard gasps and people stopping. They didn't want to get too close. Her pale skin was reflected in someone's phone light. I heard someone calling for emergency. Damon went to squat next to her, pretending to check her pulse but we both knew she was dead. I knew what he was really looking for... It was the bite marks. He turned to me and nodded and my body went numb. There were more of us here. I looked around and that's when I saw Anna standing alone. Her eyes were widened in fear.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys, thank you for the reviews :) this is the 5th chapter. Probably won't be updating for next two weeks but I will try to update as soon as possible.**

**Anna's P.O.V**

Everything looked like it was shaking. The trees. The ground. Me. My mind was replaying the image, over and over again. Her tiny pale body stood out against the green grass. She lay there so fragile and so innocent... How could this happen? She was one of the nicest people I have ever known. And then it hit me... Silas. His words now resonated in my head. "I might just start with your new room mate". I shivered at the thought. He wasn't going to stop until I helped him... But I couldn't. I couldn't betray my own family.

"Ahhhh!" There was another scream. I took a deep breath. Oh God, please don't be another body. I looked to where the scream had come from. My legs were moving but my mind was staring ahead blankly. I was trying to prepare myself for what I was about to see. I inhaled sharply as I covered my mouth with my hands. It wasn't just one, it was three. They looked just as pale as my roommate did. I didn't know why but my legs just kept moving closer and closer to them. And then that's when I saw it. I felt like I was about to throw up. Everything was dizzy and I could feel myself getting colder. There bodies were scattered. It looked like there was they were just thrown on the floor but the only thing that looked out of place was their hand. All of their hands were facing upwards and I immediately knew why. Their hearts had been ripped out of their chests and placed in their hands.

Before I knew it, I was sitting next to one of them. There was a note on their heart.

**Their blood is on your hands.**

I grabbed the letter before anyone saw it. I felt someone push passed me. It was Elena. She looked horrified.

I walked past the crowd and back to my room. I needed to get out of here and fast. But to where? He would hunt me down wherever I go. That meant that I couldn't go to my family. They had to be safe. But they were the only ones that I felt safe with. I was all alone.

Beep beep! I jumped at the sound of my phone. Unknown caller. My hand was shaking. I took a deep breath.

"Silas." I answered with no emotion. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction that he had scared me.

"Did you get my message? Or should I say messages?" He said with a cold laugh.

I took another deep breath, "was it really necessary? All four of them?"

"No, not really. But nothing else seems to get through to you. Did you like the hearts? I thought it was a nice touch, don't you?" He told me. He didn't wait for me to answer before he said, "I'll be waiting. You know where I'll be. And if you don't show up, I'll send you another message." The phone went silent and he was gone.

I needed a plan. And a plan fast. How could I stop an immortal being? Kill him? No, the cure was gone. There was nothing left that I knew could kill him. Turn him into stone? No, look how good that turned out. Maybe I could help him? Definitely not.

I looked at the picture on her bedside table. She was smiling widely and she had her family surrounding her. It was her 10th birthday party. She had told me this the first day I met her. She was so young and now she was gone... Her family will never be able to see her again. My hands rolled into fists.

I needed time. I needed time to figure out everything about him. My parents had told me only a little bit about him. That he was immortal and could shape shift, and he could read into the minds of others… well, except for a few. And one of them was me.

**Elena's P.O.V**

I had sat in front of a man in uniform. He asked me all sorts of questions from what happened to where I was standing to did I know her. I tried to answer the best I could but there was a feeling that I couldn't shake. It was fear. The police couldn't help, I knew that all too well. And this was someone unknown. It could be anyone.

I fiddled with my fingers waiting for Caroline. She was being questioned as well. Damon sat next to me and put his hands on my hand to stop from fiddling. I slightly moved my hands away from his. I could tell he noticed because he pulled his hands back. I just couldn't stop thinking about what Anna had grabbed from the dead guy. I definitely saw her take something. But what was it?

"How could this happen?" I said frustratedly more to myself then anyone. "Wasn't this supposed to be a normal experience? Can't we all just be normal?"

Damon didn't say anything for a while. "Everything will be-"

"Do not tell me everything will be fine. It is not fine. Mostly everyone I know is a vampire, a witch or a werewolf, my parents are dead, my biological parents are dead, and aunt Jenna is dead. Alaric. Lexi. I nearly lost Jeremy." My breathing was fast now as my fear turned into anger. "I got hunted by Katherine. And then Klaus. Kol. Silas. I just wanted to have a normal experience. I just wanted a normal life." I said as my breath slowed down.

He just looked at me. Not knowing what to say.

Before he could say anything, Caroline came out with a tired look on her face. The man in uniform followed her.

"Thank you for all your help guys. We are going to do the best we can to find out who did this. Just get some rest and if you remember anything else, don't hesitate to tell us." He said to all of us.

We walked back to our dorm room quietly. Caroline, who always had something to say, was quiet. We were all thinking.

That night, Damon left saying goodbye.

"I love you." He said as he held me.

"I love you too." I said back at him. He pulled me into hug and was about to walk out. "Wait, Damon. I know that I've been a bit off lately but I-I… thank you for coming." He smiled, the Damon smile, and nodded.

Caroline and I sat in silence for a while. We both didn't know what to say. There was definitely a supernatural being here and it was most likely a vampire.

I was the first one to break the silence. "Caroline, you can't tell Stefan this… but I think Anna had something to do with this." I said to her. I didn't look at her. I didn't want to see her reaction. I knew she would think I was stupid but how much did we know about her.

"How?" She asked me, raising her eyebrows. I could tell she already thought it was a stupid thing to think about.

"I saw her grab something from one of the bodies… and I mean, we know nothing about her. How can we be sure to trust her?" I explained to Caroline.

"_You_ don't know anything about her, Elena. You haven't even bothered to make the effort. I know it's hard for you to see Stefan with someone else but you should be happy for him and not accusing his new friend to be a murderer." She told me off and I shrunk in my spot. Then she took a deep breath and gave me a look of pity. "I know that it's hard. I mean you loved Stefan or maybe you still even do. But he needs to move on. And trust me, Anna could not hurt a fly. Let alone three other people."

I looked at her, thinking about what she had said. Maybe she was right? I mean I didn't really want to know her. I didn't want to know the girl that seemed to be stealing Stefan's heart away from me… Was I that selfish? I already knew the answer to that question.

I sighed, "You're right." She smiled at that. "But if it's not her and it's not any of us, who the hell is it?"


	6. Chapter 6

**-hey, guys! Hope you are enjoying this story. I know I said two weeks until I write the next chapter but I couldn't stop writing haha. Someone will be finding stefan in the next few chapters. But who will it be? And we will soon find out what Silas is up to. Hope you enjoy chapter 6. Please R+R :)**

**Elena's P.O.V:**  
Day after day, there was body after body. All the bodies had the same thing in common; the heart in the hand. What did it mean? And most importantly, who was doing it?

It had been a few weeks from the first attack. We still had no clue who was doing this. And neither did the police. Some parents had taken their child out of college because of safety issues. I didn't blame them.  
I still had a feeling that Anna had something to do with it but she had left after the first attack. Maybe she was scared? Stefan seemed to be a bit concerned about where she was or if she was coming back. I reassured him that she was going to come back, all her stuff was still here anyway. He didn't seem to believe me but just nodded.

Speaking of stefan, there was definitely something up with him. About a week ago, Caroline and I had gone to the local bar, just a few minutes walk, down the street. We didn't even know where to start but one thing we knew was vampires like to drink. Whether it'd be human blood or alcohol. Stefan sat in the corner, in the shadows. He looked like he was sucking on someone's neck. As we went closer, he looked up to see us. Blood was dripping down from his mouth and he quickly licked it up.  
"I would offer you some but I think she doesn't have anymore left in her." As he had said that, the body went limp.  
I stared horrified at the person sitting in front of me. Who was he? He definitely wasn't the Stefan I knew. Caroline had grabbed him by the arm and pushed him outside the bar door.  
"What is your problem?" She had said. I couldn't find words, any words, to say to him. "What happened to if I drink human blood I'll become a crazy nut head."  
Stefan smiled, "I learnt how to control it over the summer." He said simply shrugging.  
"You haven't been able to control it since you first became a vampire, what makes you think you can control it now?" She yelled back at him. And then she stopped and her eyes widened in fear, "please do not tell me you're the one who has been killing all these people."  
I gulped. Could it be the person standing right in front of us this whole time?  
He sighed, "it's not my thing. Whoever is doing it has an agenda. I mean the heart in the hand, why waste my time?"  
We stared at him for a moment. Should we believe him? This was the guy I had fell in love with. The guy I still loved. And he seemed right.  
"Well, what is their agenda?" I said aloud.

Ever since that day, Stefan has been helping us to find this killer. No luck so far. I still had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with Anna. In my own time, I asked around to all Anna's friends about her. I knew Caroline didn't believe me when I first told her about Anna so I didn't involve her in this part of my investigation. And I surely didn't involve Stefan either.  
**  
A week later...**  
I went to Stefan's room to see how he was doing. I hadn't heard from him in the last few days. Anna being away got him pretty agitated and she still hadn't come back. No one knew where she was and she left no message either. To be completely honest, I didn't know if she was coming back either.  
I knocked on the door to his room but there was no answer. I knocked again but still no answer. I listened in to hear any breathing or movement but nothing. Maybe he was out?  
I walked down to the bar. He wasn't there. I knew he had no classes today so where the hell could he be? As I walked back to my dorm room, I heard someone shouting my name.  
I turned around to see Stefan walking towards me. I couldn't help but smile.  
"Hey" I said to him as he caught up to me.  
"Hey, I was just going to tell you that I will be in mystic falls for a few days. And I was hoping you could tell Caroline as well." He told me.  
"Why are you going back?" I asked curiously.  
"I missed home." He said simply. I didn't argue with that. I did too.  
"Maybe I can go back with you?" I asked.  
"No." He said quickly and I was taken aback by it. "I mean, someone has to figure out who has been doing all of the killings. And it's your first college experience, I don't want you to miss out on anything." He said and he hugged me before I could say anything. It felt good to be in his arms but something didn't feel right... "I'll see you in a few days." He whispered in my ear and I shivered.  
**  
**That night, Caroline came into my room shaking. I saw the fear in her eyes.  
"What's wrong?" I asked her.  
"I-I think..." She paused for a second as she tried to get herself together. "I think you might have been right about Anna. I never really thought about her last name. But her full name is Annabel Bennet. She's related to Bonnie. And this might sound really weird but who wanted a Bennet witch to help them before?" She said all too fast.  
"Silas." My eyes widened in fear. "But he's in the bottom of the lake?"  
"What if he's not? What if he's someone else? And who's been acting really weird lately?" She said.  
I shook the idea from my head, "He was turned into stone. There was no way he could come out of it? But he did before... Unless-"  
"Oh god, where's Bonnie? Why else would he need another Bennet witch if he already had one?" Caroline interrupted.

I grabbed my phone off the bedside table. I quickly called Damon. No answer. I called him again. No answer. I then called Jeremy. It kept ringing until I heard that familiar voice.  
"Thank god." I nearly screamed at the phone.  
"Elena?" He answered confused.  
"Where's Damon?" I asked him.  
There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Uh... Elena, you might not like this." He said, "Damon went with Katherine somewhere... He told me he would be back soon. And if u asked, this meant nothing. He's just helping her."  
"What!" I screamed.  
"Hey, hey don't take this out on me. I'm just the messenger." He said to me.  
I took a deep breath. This wasn't the time. "Has Stefan come back yet?" I asked him.  
"No, why? Should he?"  
"Do not trust him and do not let him in." I told him, "we think he might be Silas."  
"Wait, I thought Silas was dead? Isn't-" there was a long pause. I heard him inhale a deep breath and then finally say, "Elena? There is something I need to tell you and it shouldn't be on the phone. And I wanted to tell you but she told me not to." I was now confused at what he was saying. "I think you might be right. Bonnie cast the spell when she was living. Spells are broken when a witch dies."  
"Wait what are you saying?" My eyes widened in fear.  
"Bonnie's dead."  
I looked at Caroline. I could see tears already running down her face. I didn't know what to say. How? Why? My heart broke into a million pieces. I felt like someone had stomped on it. It was the same feeling I got when Jeremy had died.  
"Elena? Elena?" I heard Jeremy calling out but I couldn't answer him. Not just yet. "I am so sorry for not telling you."  
I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. "Jeremy, remember what I told you. Do not trust him. He is not stefan. I love you, bye." I hung up the pone before he could say anything.  
**  
**All the pieces fell into place. Silas was back. He needed a witch for something. But what was that something? And if Silas had been impersonating Stefan all along, where was the real Stefan?


	7. Chapter 7

**Elena's P.O.V**

"Why are we doing this again?" Caroline groaned. We had been driving all night. We had to make sure. She knew that. "I mean Stefan could be anywhere. If Silas was impersonating Stefan, wouldn't he just kill him?" I shivered at the thought. Caroline's eyes widened, "oh god, what if he did!" Her breathing got faster and I knew she was about to go into a state of panic. "First Bonnie and now stefan. Oh god."  
"Okay just take a deep breath, Caroline. We don't know anything for sure." I told her, calmly.  
I could hear her inhale, then exhale, then inhale and then exhale. "You're right, but what if...?"  
I paused for a second. "I don't know." I said simply. My heart broke. I knew that when I had chosen damon, I would have lost stefan. But I had hope that he would come back, that he would forgive me. I knew that it was a big hope but I wanted to believe it. I needed to believe it. And now... What if he was gone? I'll never be able to see him again. Talk to him. See him smile. Laugh. Tell him how sorry I was for every single thing I had done to him.

Caroline and I didn't talk until we got to the lake. Both of us couldn't bare to lose another person. And the thought of it was just killing us.  
I heard her gulp and then say, "what do we do now?"  
Luckily both of us were vampires, we needed all the strength we could get.  
"We go in." I said and she nodded. We stared into the dark blue water. It was too dark to see anything. Fear crept into my veins. Fear of the unknown. What if he wasn't there? What if he actually was... I shook the feeling off. Now was not the time.  
We both nodded at each other and then dove in. Our eyes adjusted to the darkness. We swam deeper and deeper. There was no sign of a safe anywhere. Come on, come on. Please be here.  
Our eyes searched the darkness but nothing. My heart sank. What were we going to do now? As I pondered that thought, Caroline was swimming deeper. She stopped and pointed frantically. That's when I saw it. A large metal box. Relief flooded me, only to be washed away by fear again. We didn't know what we were going to find.

We had dragged the metal box onto flat ground. Thank god for vampire strength. We both stared at it, not wanting to open it just yet.  
I walked slowly, squatting down next to the safe. I looked back up at Caroline and she nodded at me. I took a deep breath as I slowly twisted the wheel on the door. I could feel Caroline hovering behind me. Here goes nothing, I thought. There was a sharp intake of breath as we both looked into the safe.

**Stefan's** **P**.**O**.**V**  
The cool feeling was gone. The water was gone. It was now replaced by light. My eyes shot open. I scanned around the area. It looked like I was in a cave of some sort. The light was coming through the opening. And then I heard it. That beating sound that made my throat dry. I licked my lips as I tried to move to where it was. Something was restraining me. I pulled and pulled but I was stuck. I looked down to see chains tying me to the wall. I grunted as I tried to pull away from the chains. I wanted it, I needed it.

"You're finally awake." I heard someone say in relief. The voice was unfamiliar. I could hear footsteps coming closer until they were only a few metres away from me. She stood there in jeans and a top with her dark brown hair flowing passed her shoulders. I could hear the chains rattling as I tried to go closer to her. I wanted her, needed her. Not her exactly but the dark red liquid that flowed through her veins. "Here." She said chucking a bag into my lap. My eyes saw the dark red colour and immediately grabbed the bag. I sank my teeth into it, ravaging it up. The liquid flowed down my throat and I felt this sensation flow through me. It was gone before I knew it, I needed more. She chucked me another one and then another one. I licked my lips as some of it dropped from my mouth.

My mind became clearer and I looked at her. I had never see this person in my life. Who was she? What did she want? And most importantly, what did she want with me?  
"I assume you want something from me." I said and she just nodded.

**Stefan came out of the safe earlier then expected. Hope you are enjoying this. What does Anna want with Stefan? And where's Damon and Katherine? And why didn't Silas kill Stefan? And sorry there has been no stefan and elena interaction but there will be soonish! :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Elena's P.O.V**

I paced back and forth. I could feel eyes watching me as I did. I just couldn't be still for a minute. The image of the safe kept replaying in y head. In that moment all our worst fears came true. Silas was back. And Stefan...  
"Elena, please just sit down." Jeremy said to me. I shook my head, continuing to walk.  
"Where is he?" I said irritatedly. What was taking him so long? He shouldn't have even been out... And with her as well! Did he not even care about what was happening with his brother?

I heard footsteps on the porch. I flipped around to look at the door. I could hear voices, there was laughter. The door creaked open and then he walked in. He stopped just a few steps from the door.  
"Elena? What are you doing here?" He asked confused. There was someone behind me. I could recognize that smirk from anywhere.  
"Well, hello Elena. Long time." She said.  
"Katherine." I gritted my teeth. "What is she doing here?" I snarled.  
Damon moved forward, "Elena, before you say anything it's not what it looks like."  
"And what does it look like Damon? Huh? You went on a road trip with your ex to god knows where, didn't even tell me, didn't even bother to call me. I've been trying to ring you for the last two days and no answer. So please explain to me what it looks like?" I yelled at him.  
Before Damon could say anything, Katherine opened her mouth. "We'll, you see Damon was protecting me from some vampires. You know how these Salvatore's work. They like to be the heroes. Save the damsel in distress. And we'll, since you turned me into a human I've been needing a lot of saving." She said smiling at me smugly.  
"Yea, you will be needing a lot of saving" I muttered, "from me." I shoved her up against the wall and watched her wince. I could hear my name being called out but I didn't turn. I looked her straight in the eyes. I'd never seen her more scared then she was now. "You don't know how much hatred I have for you. You toyed with Damon and Stefan and killed my brother. Don't think I won't kill you." I whispered in her ears. I could feel arms restraining me. She fell to the floor coughing as I let go. I struggled in their arms until I found it useless. They were too strong for me. "Damon, get off of me. Why are you protecting her?!"  
"Why don't we all just calm down for a second?" He said lightly. I knew he was talking to me more then anyone else.  
"I will calm down when she is out of our lives forever." I said gritting my teeth.  
"Elena, this is not the time." I heard Jeremy say, "there are more important things then Katherine right now. Like Stefan." My head snapped to his direction. He was right.  
Damon let go of me quickly saying, "what about Stefan?" I could see his forehead creasing from the concern he had for his brother.  
It took a few minutes to tell him the whole story. He poured a drink as he listened. Katherine sat in the seat by herself to my anger.  
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" He asked annoyed.  
"We tried." I said back to him. "Maybe if you weren't with-"  
"Elena." Caroline said softly.

I took a deep breath and then started explaining everything we knew to him, "We don't know where Stefan is, if he is even alive? And we don't know where Silas is either? When I last spoke to him he said he was coming back to mystic falls but there has been no sign of him at all." I finished. Damon didn't look at me. He just stared blankly at the floor in front of him. "How can we find someone that can shape shift into anyone?"

"You can't." Katherine said and I gave her a deathly glare. No one asked for her opinion. "So you look for the next best thing. You say this Anna person is the one Silas is looking for?" I nodded at her, "we'll, you look for her. Wherever she is, Silas is bound to be or close to being."  
I hated her with a passion but she did have a point. "How do we find someone who Silas can't even find?" I said to her.  
"You're talking to the person who hid from an original vampire for how many years?" She said with a smile, "does she have family?"  
I shrugged, I had never talked to her before. How would I know?  
"Yea she does. She said something about how they lived in Colorado." Caroline chipped in. I forgot that she even talked to Anna.  
"We'll thats where we start." Katherine said simply.

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
I looked at her like she was crazy. "Let me get this straight, all you want from me is to leave?" I asked her and she just nodded at me. "You pull me out of the bottom of a lake just to tell me I can leave?"  
"We'll, not exactly. I had some help with the lifting but yes I do want you to leave town. Go to another continent. Start a new life." She told me.  
I crinkled my eyebrows at what she was saying. "And what do you get out of it?" There must be some catch.  
"Nothing." She said and I waited for the but but there was none.  
"You're lying." I told her straight.  
"How would you know? You don't even know me?" She asked me.  
"You're right. I don't know you so why should I trust you?" I asked her and she sighed.  
"I'm assuming you know Silas?" She said and I nodded, "he needs something... He needs a body to do a certain kind of spell."  
"So?" I asked her not understanding what she was saying.  
"Your body." She said to me. "If he gets your body he will bring all hell on earth."  
"I still don't get it? Why my blood? Why can't it be anyone else's?" I said to her.  
"You're his doppelgänger. A replicate of him. The looks, the darkness... And what he doesn't know yet, his powers."  
I laughed, "what powers?"  
"He used to be the most powerful warlock and you have the same magic as him."  
"I've never heard or seen any of this so called "magic" when I was younger. If I did have magic wouldn't I have noticed? Anyway, even if I did I became a vampire doesn't that mean "my powers" are gone?"  
"It can be brought back... When you become a human."  
"Sorry, but the cure is gone. And doesn't that mean, he can when he's human?"  
She shook her head at me, "the earth can give powers to people and strip them away. He won't have any of his powers but you still will."

I sat in silence contemplating what she was telling me.  
"Okay..." I said after a while, "he needs me to switch bodies so he can bring back the love of his life?" She nodded at me, "to be completely honest, how will that bring hell on earth?"  
"To bring back the love of his life, he needs to open the veil. Remember how we'll it worked last time? Every supernatural creature will be back on earth." Lexi, I thought. "That means all the vendettas and the revenge."  
We both sat in silence. I was thinking of what she said and then rethinking.  
"He doesn't know about this. This is what he wants. You need to leave so that this can never happen." I just looked at her. "Why don't you want to leave? You have nothing left here. Your brother and ex girlfriend are together. They seem happy, I'm pretty sure they haven't even thought about you in a while." It was like she was putting a knife through me. "Your so called friend, Caroline couldn't even tell that it wasn't you. I mean why do you even want to stay in mystic falls." Elena. She was the first thought that stayed in my mind. Lingering there. "She doesn't like you. She chose your brother. She is in love with your brother. You have a free ticket. Everyone thinks your dead. You can start a new life, new town. Isn't that what you want?"  
I thought about what she said. Why should I stay? She was right. I have nothing left here. No one left here.

**will stefan leave town? And is Anna really telling the whole truth to stefan or is there something else she is not saying? And who helped her?**


	9. Chapter 9

**Anna's P.O.V**

"Hello? Hello?" I said again and again. There was no answer. I looked down at the phone. Creases appearing on my forehead. I knew that number better then the back of my hand. I heard a tiny breath. Then a sob.  
"Anna dear." She said with a deep breath. Her voice was shaking sending ripples through my spine.  
"Mum, what's wrong?!" I almost screamed into the phone. Fear ran through my body. My mum was one of the toughest people I have ever met. And before this moment, I had never heard her so scared in my life.  
"Come home, please." She whispered into the phone. "We need you here." There was a pause. "Your father and I love you." There was another pause. "No, no please!" She begged.  
"Mum, mum!" I screamed into the phone. There was no answer. I could feel myself shaking again.  
"Now, now there's no need to worry... Yet." I heard his voice sending shivers deep into my spine. My fear turned into rage.  
"Silas, don't you dare do anything to them. Do you hear me? If you so much as touch them I will-"  
"Will what? Huh? You think you can beat me?" He snarled into the phone. "You know, I asked nicely before but I'm tired now. Sick and tired of running and chasing after you. I just want one thing." His voice was starting to get louder now. "All you had to do was one thing. And you couldn't even do that." I could hear my mum squirming in the background. "So you either come here now or so help me, I'll kill both of them... One at a time. Now who should I kill first? Your mum... Or your dad?"  
"Silas please. Just leave them out of this. It's me that you want." I said softly, "I'll come home if you just let them go."  
He sighed, "here's what we are going to do. You come home in the next day and I won't kill them. Each hour after that day and I will drain there blood, bit by bit. So that when you do get here they will be grasping for life. And if your lucky, you'll be able to say your last goodbyes to them. We'll be waiting at your family home." He said and then there was a beeping sound.

The phone dropped out of my shaking hand. I could feel the fear shaking within me but not only that, the anger. He wasn't going to get away with this. He couldn't get away with this. I couldn't lose the only family I have. I just couldn't.

**Elena's P.O.V**  
Elena: I don't have anyone anymore.  
Stefan: You have me.

I jolted awake.  
"You okay?" He said to me.  
I just nodded at him. This was probably the millionth dream I had about stefan. The dreams were of passed memories that felt so long ago. My heart longed for another memory. For another touch. For stefan. But I could never admit that aloud. Not here with damon. And definitely not to myself. I had chosen damon I had to live with that. But it didn't mean that it didn't hurt. Thinking about him hurt every bone in my body. Thinking about where he was. Just thinking about him, hurt. And the dream that I just had about him, felt like a knife digging into my heart. He was always there for me. He was always mine and I just let it go. I let him go. I let a big part of my heart go.

"Elena." A voice said pulling me away from my thoughts. I looked over at damon. He had a light expression on his face. I could tell he was still worried for his brother but he was trying to hide it the best he could. "I think we should talk. About Katherine."  
I looked out the window. Damon and I were trying in a car alone on our way to Colorado. There was a black car following us which had Caroline and Jeremy in it and to my anger, Katherine. I had been the only one to be against her going. The others thought she had some use but luckily for me, I didn't have to put up with her as we were taking separate cars. "What about her? Like the fact you spent days with her and didn't tell me? Or the fact that you let her come with us to find stefan? She's human, she's only going to be a liability." I told him angrily.  
"You know it's not like that. I love you." He said to me and I could feel his eyes staring into me.  
"I know." I said, "but you also love her." I could see he was taken aback by this. He didn't say anything for a while. "You say how much you hate her but you spent 150 years looking for her and when she needs your help, you immediately protect her. What am I suppose to think? You still love her."  
"And you still love stefan." He said to me and I could feel my heart stop. "Don't try to deny it. I sometimes here you calling out his name in your sleep. You're still in love with him, aren't you?" He asked me.  
I didn't know what to say. I had been hiding these feelings from everyone especially myself. I gulped. "I-I..." We both looked out the window in front of us. The silence was deafening. I was the first one to speak. "What are we supposed to do? We both love our exes." I said softly. If he wasn't a vampire, I don't think he would have heard me.

For the rest of the ride we didn't talk at all. A part of me wanted to hold damon and tell him that I love him. But a huge part of me just wanted to be with stefan. Did I choose the wrong brother?


	10. Chapter 10

**Anna's P.O.V**  
My fingers were tapping on the steering wheel. I needed a plan but all I could think about was my parents. My family.  
It was all my fault. That thought had resonated in my brain the entire trip. It was all I could think about.

I had been driving all day and all night to make it in time. I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I probably still will be even if I had sleep. So here goes nothing. I got out of the car and walked slowly up to the drive way. The house that I had grew up in was still the same. It was a huge house with white walls. The small pond was still there with a little bridge over it. Everything was still the same. So many good memories here just to be shattered by what was to come next.

I got the spare key from under the doormat. The door creaked open.  
"Hello Anna." The voice still sent shivers down my spine. He was right in front me, only a metre away.  
"Where's my parents?!" I said calmly but I could hear the fear that echoed through my words.  
"Not so fast." He told me grabbing my arm. He chucked me onto the dining room chair. "We are going to have a little conversation."  
"About what?" I asked.  
"Oh I don't know, like where you've been for the last few weeks?" He said to me and then he whispered in my ear, "and please tell me the truth. I don't want to have to hurt your parents."  
"I've been looking for a way to help you." Which wasn't a total lie. I did find what it was that he needed.  
His eyes glared into mine. Searching and searching... But nothing.  
"Isn't it wonderful how witches can do anything? Like putting spells on themselves to stop me from reading there minds? But you know what I can do?" He grabbed my arm and dragged me away.

Next thing I knew, we were in my family's cellar. And that's when I saw them.  
"Mum! Dad!" I screamed and tried to run towards them. His nails dug into my skin and I could feel myself wincing but I needed to get to them. He pushed me onto a metal chair and tied me with chains.  
"Now are you lying to me?" He asked me.  
"No." I said.  
"Are you sure? Because you really don't want to be lying." He said and walked up to my father. A once strong man was now shaking with fear. His eyes widening as Silas looked him in the eye. He then plunged his hand through my dads chest.  
"No please! I'm telling the truth. I found a way for you to be with her!" I screamed at him. He didn't stop. He was squeezing my dad's heart now. "You need Stefan!" He stopped now, taking his hand out of my dad's chest.  
He turned to face me. "Stefan? And what would I need him for?"  
"You need his body, his powers. Once you have that you can bring her back. He has the same powers as you. You need to switch bodies and drink the cure to get your powers back." I explained to him quickly.  
"You're saying that I have to give up the body that can't be killed? It better not be a lie. And anyway the cure is gone?"  
"Not exactly, it's still running through the blood of the person who took it." I said to him.  
"Where is stefan?" He asked me.  
"In the safe where you left him." I lied.  
"Don't tell me you just left him there when you found out he was exactly what I needed? Where. Is. He."  
"Gone."

I could see the rage building up in his body. He broke the chains off my dads arms that were tying him to the wall. My dad now in front of me.  
"See that fear? It will be the last thing he ever feels." Before I could scream or do anything, he plunged his hand into my dads chest and pulled out the heart. He dropped to the floor in front of me. I could hear a soft scream from the corner where my mum was sitting. I shook from head to toe with anger. I focused all my hatred onto Silas. He fell to the floor and held his hands to his head. He was probably feeling like 100's of aneurysms were going off in his head. And then all of a sudden, he got up. He laughed, "did you really think that would work? I'm far stronger then you will ever be." He whispered into my ear. "And you better hope that Stefan shows up within the next day or else you might not have a family anymore."

**Elena's P.O.V**  
I could feel their gazes on me. We had just stopped at a petrol station. We were only half way to Colorado. I swapped spots with Katherine to her delight. Now she was in a car with damon and I was with Caroline and Jeremy.

"What?" I asked them, "it's not like you didn't hear all of our conversation Caroline." I sighed to them. I looked at her. "Don't look so sad. I know this was what you wanted. What did you say before, he's my epic love?"  
"Elena." She said. "I just want you to be happy. And if that was with damon, I wouldn't mind..." I could see a smile form on her lips. "But if you want stefan, I couldn't be more thrilled."  
"I love Damon." I said to her simply. "But I don't think I've ever stopped loving Stefan. I will always love Stefan. A big part of my heart knows that and it won't let me forget it."

**Damon's P.O.V**  
"What's got you in such a bad mood?" Katherine asked me, "girlfriend problems." She said with a smile. I could tell she liked that Elena and I were having problems.  
I shook my head. "No, brother problems."  
And then that's when I saw it. An emotion that I'd never seen before. I'd seen the cold manipulative Katherine and the fun one as well. But never pity and fear. It must be the whole human thing.  
She put her hand on my arm. "He is going to be fine, trust me."  
"He might not even be alive" I told her. I hadn't said it aloud ever since I found out what had happened and it hit me hard. I might not have a brother anymore. "I don't-I can't"  
"Hey, hey." She soothed as she rubbed my arm, "we will find him. And even if we don't, we will find Silas and we will avenge him."  
I looked over at her. These past few weeks I had seen a Katherine I had never seen before. Was Elena right? Was I really in love with Katherine? The girl who had turned me into a vampire and just left? The girl who had toyed with my brother and I? The one that I had loved and hated for so long?  
"What happened to the cold manipulative bitch? Did she finally melt?" I said smirking at her.  
She punched my arm lightly but then said, "she might have found her heart again." I smiled at her.  
She was right. We were going to find him. He was going to be okay. He had to be okay. He's my brother.

**Will stefan come back? Where's he gone? What will elena do when she sees him again, if she sees him again? Sorry I didn't put much defan in here but there will be some :) thanks for reading!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Anna's P.O.V**

I could hear my mum silently sobbing in the corner. I wanted to hug her, to tell her it was okay but I couldn't. It wasn't just because I was stuck to a chair but also because I didn't know what to say to her. I couldn't tell her it was okay when I didn't believe it either. I had zoned out a bit. I was exhausted and hungry, which was never a good combination.

All of a sudden light poured into the cellar and then it was gone again. I heard the door slam and my mum jump from the sound. He pulled out a chair in front of me.  
"It's been a day. I'm tired of waiting. I have waited 2000 years and I'm not going to wait any longer. So do your witch voodoo and find him." He said to me. He was so close to me, his green eyes burning into mine.  
I waited there for a second. "I need a map and something of his." I said to him.  
"Here." He said chucking a hoodie at me. "Luckily I found this in his car or else we would be having more problems and you must know by now, I don't like problems."  
"Did you wear it?" I asked him.  
He shook his head at me, "Hoodies aren't really my thing." He told me. He left the room and then returned with a map in his hands.  
I watched as he laid out the map in front of me. "Please just let my mum go. You don't need her. I will do anything you want. Just please!" I begged him. It was the only thing I could do. This was the third time I had begged him.  
He smiled at me coldly. "Just be happy she's not dead like your dear old father." He said. I held out my arms to him. "What are you doing?"  
"Do you actually expect me to do this chained to a chair." I told him.  
He looked at me for a moment and then pointed at me, "If you do anything, I will break her tiny little neck, okay?" and I just nodded at him. He broke the chains off me and my hand immediately rubbed my arms. I could already see bluish-yellow bruises had already formed where the chains were. "You better hope he is somewhere near." He told me. I doubted he would be anywhere in America. He would probably be halfway across the world by now.

I took the heart necklace that my mum had got me off my neck. It had been passed down from generation to generation. It was something like a heirloom. One hand had the jumper in it and the other had the necklace dangling from it. The necklace was hovering over the map. I focused all my energy onto the map. I could feel the necklace moving in circles and then stop. It landed on a spot on the map. I looked down at it and my eyes widened. He couldn't be? It had to be wrong but it had never been wrong before. I looked up at Silas and he was smiling. I gulped.  
"It looks like I won't have to wait long after all."

**Elena's P.O.V  
**We had just arrived in Denver the capital of Colorado. We were finally here. Damon and Katherine just got out of the car.  
"So what do we do now?" I asked them. Caroline had helped us narrow down the location when she remembered Anna saying something about the 16th street mall. Know Caroline to be talking about shopping.  
"Eat." Katherine said.  
"No." I told her straight forward. "We just stopped off a few hours ago. We are finally really close to finding Stefan. We are not going to wait for you to eat for the 100th time."  
"Well, I'm sorry that I have human needs. Maybe you should have thought about that before you shoved the cure down my throat." She said back to me.  
I was about to say something when Jeremy cut me off. "I'm hungry as well." He said simply and i glared at him. "Hey, you know how hungry I get."  
"Okay, why don't Elena and I find out as much as we can about Anna's family and you guys go eat. We will all meet up in the same place in an hour?" Caroline interrupted.  
"No." Damon said, "I'll go with you. I want to help find Stefan."  
"I am not leaving _her_ with my brother. She killed him." i said and then i looked over at Damon. I saw the pain that filled his eyes.  
"Might I remind you, I'm human. There's not much I can do with my small bare hands and I'm pretty sure he's stronger then me now." Katherine told me, "I have no reason to kill him anyway. What's in it for me? You will all kill me if I do something."  
She was right. I thought about it for a second. I looked back at Damon and knew that he wasn't going to wait there with them. He wanted to find Stefan just as much as I wanted to find him. And Caroline did as well. So I left that psychopath with my brother but I knew that Katherine was right. Jeremy was stronger by far now. She stood no chance against him.

It felt like we had talked to everyone in Denver. We were getting nowhere. We sat on a park bench staring off into space. We were just about to meet up with Jeremy and Katherine.  
"Come on guys, we can't give up!" Caroline said to us, "We will find them!"  
"Not to try and break your peppy attitude but we don't know where Anna lives. We don't know who Anna is. We don't know what Silas looks like. And we sure as hell aren't anywhere closer to finding my brother. So sorry if we don't feel like being all positive." Damon told her.  
"Shhh." I said trying to hush them. There was someone standing across the street from us. He looked familiar. I knew that back. I had seen it so many times. Then he turned around. His eyes pierced into mine. His green eyes.  
"What is it, Elena?" Damon said.  
He was gone. "He's here." I said to them, "Stefan's here."

**Was it Stefan or Silas? Hopefully all your questions will be answered in the next few chapters when they all come face to face with Silas :) Thank you for reading :D Oh and I don't think there will be a romance between Anna and Stefan... maybe haha. I just love Stefan and Elena together too much! :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Elena's P.O.V**  
"He's here. I know he's here." I kept telling them. I needed to believe that that was him. I needed to believe that he was alive.  
Jeremy and Katherine had finally caught up with us. They looked stuffed after there lunch. They were both patting there stomach sitting on the grass in front of us.  
"Are you sure it was him? We didn't see anyone." Caroline said. I knew they all didn't believe me but I know it was him. I couldn't be more sure of it.  
"I know it was him." I repeated again. "It was definitely him."  
Caroline looked at me. I could see pity in her eyes. "Okay, let's just say it is him. We know we are at the right place then. But where do we start? I never want to say this again but Damon was right before. We don't know anything about Anna and we have asked everyone." She said to me.  
"Then we find people who do." Katherine and I said at the same time. We both looked at each other and then looked away. "We check police records, medical records, anything that would have any information. Last name is Bennet so anything you can find." I told them.

We split up into groups. Damon went with Katherine because he was the only one that could tolerate her for a long period of time and Caroline, Jeremy and I went together.  
While Damon and Katherine were checking police records, we were checking medical records. One of them had to have been to the doctors. Everyone goes to the doctors.  
"So what are we going to do? It's not like we can be like 'Oh, hey you know I was wondering if you could please illegally tell us private information about a person?'" Jeremy asked us with sarcasm in his tone.  
I smiled at him, "Yes, we are. We are vampires after all. What's a little compulsion here and there." I shrugged at him and he just rolled his eyes.

We walked into the closest hospital. I pleaded for there to be information here. We walked past the front desk and tried to find a computer somewhere where there were hardly any people.  
After walking through corridor after corridor and going through elevators, we finally found a computer.  
"Caroline you look out just in case." I told her since she could compel people. She nodded as she walked to the end of the corridor.  
Jeremy stood behind me looking out just in case. I typed Anna Bennet into the computer. Come on, I thought. Loading... Loading... Still loading.  
"Come on!" I said frustratedly. And then it finally stopped. One match. I clicked on it, hoping for some kind of address. My eyes scanned the page. Bingo!  
"Come on, lets go." I told him as I wrote down the address on my phone.

**Damon's P.O.V**  
"So who wants to be the one in trouble?" Katherine asked me.  
I looked at her, "You know I still am a vampire, I do have compulsion." I smirked at her.  
"Mmm... Yea, what are you going to do, compel the whole police station?" She asked me with a roll of her eyes, "Even when I am human, I have more logic then you."  
"Not that much if you're teasing a vampire. I am stronger then you." I said playfully grasping her wrists in my hands and pulling her closer to me.  
"You wouldn't hurt me." She said batting her eyelashes.  
I paused for a second and then whispered in her ears, "Not yet." I smirked at her.

Tears ran down her face. One after the other. I had never seen her cry so much. Actually, I had never seen her cry in my life.  
"I'm so sorry." She blabbered out through her sobs, "It's just been a rough day."  
"I understand." The policeman said giving her a sympathetic look. We had managed to get into one of the offices in the police department, all thanks to Katherine. She started crying harder. "I'll go get some more tissues," He said as Katherine pulled out the last tissue from the tissue box. Her mascara and eyeliner were running down her face, leaving lines. She looked a mess. I was proud.

As the police was about to walk out the door, I grabbed his arm. "Can you give us about a few minutes in here?" I asked him, compelling him. He just nodded at me and left. "Even when you're human, you know how to manipulate." I said proudly at her.  
She smiled at me, grabbing tissues out of her purse. "How do you think I survived all this time?" We both looked at each other for a moment before she looked away. "Hurry before he comes back." She told me and I sat behind his desk, in front of the computer. Luckily, it was still on so I didn't have to use his password. I went onto the database and scrolled through.  
"It's still loading!" I groaned at the computer.  
"It's been like what 5 seconds." Katherine said back to me.  
"5 seconds too long." I told her and then the loading stopped. Nothing. "Come on, we better go before they catch us." I said disappointed.

As we were going out of the station, my phone rang.  
"We didn't find anything." I said to her, "what about you?"  
"We found the address. I'll text it to you now." She said, "meet us at the address as soon as you can" all of a sudden there was a loud bang and pain. I fell to the ground.  
"Damon!" Katherine screamed. I turned around to see the policeman from before holding a gun.  
"Damon, Damon?! What's happening," I heard Elena saying through the phone.  
I put the phone back to my ear, "don't worry about us. Go find them. Don't wait for us. There's a tiny problem. We will be there as soon as we can." I pressed the end button on the phone before she said something else.  
"I thought we got rid of all the vampires in town and then you guys show up?" He said coming closer to us as he fired another shot at me. I kneeled down on the floor, "You guys just never learn." He pointed the gun at Katherine now.  
"No!" I screamed as a shot went off.

**Anna's P.O.V**  
I had hardly any energy left. The locator spell that I had used to find Stefan had taken energy out of me, energy that I didn't have especially since I was hardly getting any sleep or food for that matter. He gave us just enough food to survive for the day. I gave most of mine to my mum. She had needed it more then me. I looked at her as she slept. Her breathing was uneven and I could see her shivering. It was all my fault. I should have just listened to them. I shouldn't have gone to college... But I just wanted to have a normal life. I didn't want to hide.

The door to the cellar burst open. I heard a cold laugh coming from the doorway. I lifted my head up and my eyes widened.  
"Isn't this your lucky day?" Silas said to me as he dragged him into the cellar. He pushed him onto the floor in front of me. "Look who I just found wondering the streets." Stefan looked up at me and I could see that he was weak. Whatever Silas did to him had really taken out a lot of his energy too. There were bloody patches covering his shirt and his neck was still bleeding. "So enough wasting time. Lets do the spell." He told me as he went to unchain me.  
"I-I can't do the spell." I told him, "I'm too weak. I need to wait for the full moon. And anyway you don't have the cure."  
I could see his body seething with anger. He went over to my mum now. "No!" I screamed as he bit into her neck. He stopped and I could see he blood dripping down his mouth. She was alive but only barely.  
He had a calm expression on his face now. "I'm not going to wait for another full moon so you better get stronger. By the time I find the person who took the cure, you better be ready." He said leaving us in the darkness.

"Are you stupid!" I screamed at him. He looked taken aback. "What are you doing here? What happened to another continent?" I said to him, "or do you like being killed?"  
"If it wasn't for me, you and your mother would be dead." He said to me, "I can help you." He walked over to my mum now. He bit into his arm and put the bite mark to my mums lips. She squirmed at first but then drank it. Her wounds healed just like the stories had said. Vampire blood was could actually heal.  
"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked him as he pulled the chains off my mum.  
"I wanted to find Silas. He locked me in a safe for god knows how long, he tormented my friends. I want to kill him." He said and I could see his green eyes got darker.  
He yanked the chains off me and I felt a sense of relief.  
"You can't kill him. Once I do the spell, he will become one of the most powerful warlocks again. He will make himself immortal again with her as well." I told him, "he can't be killed."

**hey guys, sorry there is no stefan** **and elena moments but there will be** **in the** **next** **chapter! :) thanks for reading :)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Elena's P.O.V**  
I was right. He was here, I thought as he walked out of the house. But there was something not right about him.  
"Stefan-" Caroline said next to me as she was about to go up to him.  
I pulled her arm back, "that's not him." I whispered to her.  
It was Silas. He was coming out of the house and he looked angry. He got into the car and left. I motioned for Caroline to follow me. This was our chance.

We creeped into the house. It was dark and there was not a sound. It reminded me so much of a horror movie where someone always dies.  
There was no one here from the looks of it or sound of it. There were some pictures hanging on the wall.  
"We're at the right place, look." Caroline said pointing to one of the pictures. There Anna stood in the middle of what I assumed was her parents.

I could hear voices from somewhere. I frowned as it disappeared here and there. But it was definitely coming from downstairs. We tiptoed through the house so that no one would hear us. As we walked down the flight of stairs, the voices got louder. My heart beat faster as I could hear him. His soft, velvet voice echoed through my mind.  
We got to a metal door. There was a lock that bound it shut.  
"Stefan?" I called out. The voices went silent.  
Then I heard his voice. The voice that melted my heart each time I heard it. "Elena?" He called, "Elena, you need to leave. Silas is here and he's going to come back."  
"I'm not leaving you here." I told him, "where's the key?" I said frustrated.  
There was another pause. "There should be a loose floorboard somewhere where your standing." I hear a girls voice, probably Anna's. I got to the floor and ripped them out, one at a time. And then a metal small object glinted.

I opened the door and there he was. His green eyes met mine.  
"Stefan." I said softly.  
All these emotions ran through me. Relief, happiness, concern.  
His eyes widened as he screamed, "no!"  
I felt a pair of hands grab my head and then I plunged into darkness.

**Anna's P.O.V**  
I felt the man that I had sat beside me, now gone. He pushed Silas against the wall, angrily. Silas just laughed in his face, "you think you're actually going to beat me?" He pulled a stake out and staked stefan ear his heart. "You're lucky I need you." He whispered into his ear, "you guys better not do anything stupid before I come back." And with that he left us in the cold darkness.

Stefan fell to the floor. He grabbed the stake and pulled it out of him, grunting. He immediately ran to were Elena lay, cradling her in his arms. I could see the love he had for her emanate from his eyes. Caroline stood staring at them too giving them a sympathetic look.  
"Elena?" He said as her eyes fluttered open. She smiled up at him. It felt like they were in their own little world as their eyes stared at each other.  
She put her hand on his cheek, "You're alive. I knew you'd be alive. I had hope." She said.  
He smiled back at her but it was gone in the next second. Replaced by a pained expression. "You shouldn't be here. He'll kill you." He said to her.  
"No, I want to be here. I'd rather die and know that you were okay then live without knowing." She said to him as she sat up still gazing into his eyes, "I love you. I always will."

**Damon's P.O.V**  
"You okay?" I asked her as I turned to look at her. Those big brown eyes staring up at me.  
A smile formed on her lips, "I think I should be the one asking that. Look at you." She said to me pointing at the bullets wounds. They weren't just any ordinary bullets but wooden bullets laced with vervain. I could feel the vervain burn through me. Thankfully I had moved in front of her just in time. She wouldn't have been able to survive this. She was human after all.

And then I felt a pair of hands grab my arms and drag me somewhere. He shoved me against the wall of the police station. It looked like we were at the back of the police station. He held a a stake to my heart. The bullets were making me too weak todo anything.  
"I'm going to enjoy doing this." He said but before he could do anything, he was being pushed backwards. She turned him around, kneed him in the gut and elbowed his back. He fell to the floor as she pointed his own gun to him.  
"Now this is what you're going to do. You're going to pretend like we were never here. There are more of us here so I wouldn't call for back up. We will be out of this town soon anyway." She told him and he nodded in fear. "You can go now." She said to the police officer and he ran away as fast as he could.  
"How did you do that?" I asked in amazement.  
"After being on this earth for centuries, you pick up a few things... And also watching a lot of Jackie Chan movies." She said laughing and I could help but laugh with her. She really had changed or maybe she was finally herself?

"Katherine! Just do it!" I said to her irritated.  
"It's gross. I am not putting my hands inside your body to pull out bullets!" She screamed at me.  
"Oh yeah, let's just leave them in then." I told her sarcastically. She scrunched up her nose and shivered and closed her eyes as she pulled out the first bullet, then the next bullet and then the next bullet. "I'm glad your not a doctor." I told her laughing.  
"At least they have gloves and tools." She said to me. She held out her wrist to my mouth.  
"What are you doing?"  
"Drink!" She said, "when we do find Anna or Silas or Stefan, you're going to want to be strong enough." And then she smirked, "just don't drink me dry."  
"Try not to."  
We were about to leave for the address when I could feel someone watching us.  
"Isn't this lovely?" Someone said coldly. "You must be Damon and... Katherine I'm assuming?" He said to us.  
"Silas."

**hey guys, I hope the stefan and elena meeting lived up to your expectations, sorry if it didn't! We will have more moments of them together in the chapters ahead. And there might be something going on between damon and Katherine. I didn't want one brother to be happy and the other to have nothing. Thanks for** **reading and reviewing :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Elena's P.O.V**  
"So that's it? We're just going to let him win?" I said to them. How could they do that? After everything that he put each and every one of us through, especially stefan. I looked at stefan.  
He just nodded, "it's all we have left. If he gets the love of his life back, maybe he'll leave us alone. That's all he's ever wanted."  
I sighed in frustration. There had to be another way. "You'll never die. You'll always have that hunger within you. If you switch bodies with him, there's no going back," I said to him.  
"I can never die now. There's no hope that I can be anything but a vampire." He told me.  
"There is always hope." I said to him. "There's four of us here as well. We can over take him."  
"Do you know how strong he is? You have a brother don't you?" Anna asked me and I just nodded. "If we do anything, he'll kill you, he'll kill all of us and you're brother." I shivered remembering the time I had lost Jeremy. I couldn't handle that all over again. "Look what he did to my dad. Look at what he did to your friend, Bonnie?" She said to me.  
I took a deep breath. "How do we know he won't kill us afterwards?" I asked them.  
"We'll he'll kill us now if we don't." She said to me.

I realized that I was holding Stefan's hand tightly now. I did it unknowingly. My body yearned for him to hold me, to tell me everything was going to be okay but I could feel him holding back. He had stayed pretty quiet after I had told him I loved him. I knew exactly why... Damon.

No one talked for a bit. I could see Stefan thinking about something but he didn't say a word. It was so like him to keep it to himself. Anna sat with her mum and Caroline just stared at the ground.  
"Stefan...?" I said softly. He turned to me slightly and I knew he was listening. "I'm so sorry." He was about to say something but I stopped him before he could. I looked him straight in the eye. "I never meant to hurt you. It was the last thing I wanted. I was just so confused and in that moment it felt so right to be with damon." I could see the pain in his eyes. "And then afterwards it felt like there was a whole in my heart. I knew it was because of you but I didn't say anything. I wanted to give Damon a shot and I wanted you to move on. You deserve so much better then me, both of you do." There was a moment of silence. No one said anything. "Stefan?" It was barely a whisper but I knew that he could hear me. He didn't answer. He just kept quiet. I felt like crying in that moment. Anna interrupted, changing the subject. I knew she only did it because she knew Stefan wasn't going to answer. She asked us what had happened to Silas after she left and how we came to find them.

I had just finished telling them about what happened with Silas and searching for them. "Where are they now?" He asked me, not looking at me at all.  
"Damon said there was a slight problem but he'd be here as soon as he could. And I locked Jeremy in a hotel room." I could see Stefan's forehead crease, "I couldn't let him come with us so that he would die. And I couldn't leave him at home just in case Silas was there,"  
"What about damon? What was the problem?" He asked me.  
I now realized that I was too worried about Stefan that I didn't even think about Damon. "I-I don't know." I started, "it can't have been Silas, right?"  
There was a pause for a second, "I don't think so. The only time I've heard him leave is after you guys came." Stefan said to me.  
There was a tiny bit relief but we still didn't know about Damon. Why couldn't everyone just be safe?

We started talking about our game plan for when Silas came back.  
"I'll distract Silas." Stefan offered.  
"No!" I said immediately.  
"He really wants the love of his life back. I'm the only way he can. And it gives you guys a chance to be free. Take Anna's mum with you and find Damon. Anna and I will both do the spell and hopefully he will leave you all alone." He said to all of us. Anna nodded, agreeing with what he was saying. I just stared in disbelief. He couldn't do this! He was going to get himself killed!  
"Mmm... I don't think that's happening." Our heads shot up to the sound of the voice. "You'll all be staying here until we do the spell. And then I might let you all go free." Silas said throwing Katherine at us. Her eyes were wide with fear. I looked at Stefan and I knew that we were both thinking the same thing. Where was Damon?

**hey guys, I think there will only be a few more chapters left. Thank you for reading :) the reason I had stefan not jump at the fact that elena said she loved him is because after everything she put him through, I didn't want him to immediately jump back into her arms. Hope you guys are enjoying the story :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
"We have the cure." He said pointing to Katherine. "The doppelgänger." Pointing to me. "And the witch." He finally said coldly smiling at Anna. "It's time."

My eyes met with Anna. For the first time, I saw how skinny and fragile she looked. She hadn't eaten much at all since I had been trapped here with her. Silas needed her alive but he barely fed her enough. Only just enough to survive, however she gave most of her food to her mum. We needed a plan to get out of here. If we didn't I knew that we all wouldn't survive.

He laughed, "your plan won't work." His eyes flickered to me. He walked closer towards me until his face was just inches from mine. From afar, he looked exactly like me. The hair, the body, the face. But as I looked at him, his eyes had coldness behind them. His smile was sinister. "How many times do I have to tell you that you can't beat me. Always trying to be the hero. Doesn't it get tiring?" He asked me. I didn't say anything. "Especially saving this one over here." He said and the next minute he was next to her. He touched her cheek as she flinched away from him. "I'm actually quite curious. After every single thing she has done to you. Not only did she rip your heart out, she threw it on the ground and stomped on it." He said looking back at me. My eyes flickered to Elena. I could see the pain behind her eyes. Her big brown eyes were staring into mine. I looked back at Silas. "She didn't even know that I was impersonating you. Doesn't that hurt? That she doesn't even know who you are? That she slept with your brother? That she's going out with your brother?" I could feel his words hacking into my skin. Each word cut. Deeper and deeper. Of course, it hurt. Of course, I still love her... And even how much I wanted to tell her. Even how much I wanted to scream it out... I couldn't.  
There was a pause before he shrugged and said, "well, I guess you're lucky. He's not a problem anymore." His words hit me the second he said it.

My hand rolled into fists. As I was about to grab him and rip his heart out, someone beat me to it.  
"Where is he?!" She screamed at him. He laughed cruelly at all of us, "why do you care so much? You're in love with him." He said looking towards me. She shoved him against the wall. But he was too strong for her, he overpowered her, pushing her towards the ground. He sauntered towards her about to kill her.  
"No!" I yelled. I was now standing next to Katherine. I bit my wrist and shoved it against her wrist so she would have to swallow my blood. She tried to resist but I was too strong for her. "I'll kill her." I told him. "And then you will never be able to see the love of your life. The cure will be gone." I could see rage build up inside of him. His eyes turned black.  
Before he could do anything, Elena grabbed the stake that he had staked me with earlier and shoved it deep into his heart.

And then all of a sudden, there was a screaming. One hand clutched his heart and the other clutched his head.  
"Go!" Anna said through gritted teeth . "Take my mum with you." We all looked back at her. "Go, while you still can! I can't hold for much longer." Elena and I looked at each other and nodded. Caroline grabbed Anna's mum and ran, while elena grabbed Katherine. I was about to go when I looked back at her. She was breathing heavily.  
"I'll be right behind you. Go!" I yelled at Elena as she waited there for me.

"No, I'm not leaving without you!" She said back to me.

"I'll be right behind you, I promise." I told her. She looked at me for a second. Her eyes stared into mine and I felt like she was staring into my soul. "Go!" i yelled at her. Her brows were crinkled and she looked like she didn't know whether to run or not. I nodded at her and then she took mine last look at me and then ran. I held Anna and was about to follow Elena when I felt her collapse in my arms. "Anna!" I said frantically as I shook her. I could still feel a pulse but it was weak.

I gasped. Pain shot through my whole body. And then it was gone in a second. His eyes stared into mine as he pulled the stake that had been driven into my stomach.  
"You continually defy me." He said, anger emanating from his body. "Why can't you just give me what I want?" He said driving the stake into my body again. It wasn't in the same place, it was higher up now. "Is that hard? Or do you always have to be the hero?" He said twisting the stake into my body again. Each time, it got closer and closer to my heart. His face was now inches from me. "And hair for that, when I find them, I will not only kill them. But I will make you watch every second of it as they scream for you to help them." And then he let go of me. "But for now, as I go hunt for them, you will feel like stake after stake is driving into your body and into your heart. You will be begging for death." And then there was another surge of pain and the stake drove into me again.


	16. Chapter 16

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
All these thoughts were running through me head. It had been what felt like hours since Silas had left to go hunt them down. I had tried, to no use, to open the steel door but it wouldn't budge at all. I prayed that they were all okay. She had to be okay. I couldn't lose someone else, if what I think Silas had said was true. Damon couldn't be... I couldn't even think of the word. My hands were balled into tight fists. My fist smashed against the door. Not even a dent. I sighed in frustration.  
I looked back at Anna as her body rose up and down from her steady breathing. I had given her some of my blood to heal her but to be honest there wasn't much to give. I hadn't eaten since I got trapped in this freaking place! It took all my strength to not sink my teeth into her body, ripping her vein that went through her neck apart.

She stirred a bit every now and then but she never woke up. Then there was another surge of pain! It felt like it was ripping apart every inch of my body. It had gotten worse as each hour passed. Even though Silas wasn't here, I still felt the pain of the stake in my body. I knew it had to do with his mind control but I wanted it to stop. I needed it to stop. I kneeled over on the floor, clutching at the last place it felt like it went through. I then felt a pair of hands wrap around my neck. I could feel my body fall as everything fell into darkness.

**Elena's P.O.V**  
Katherine and I were in an empty diner, just on the outskirts of town. I had told Caroline to get Jeremy and take him and Anna's mum to somewhere safe. She had argued for a while saying how she wanted to help Stefan and how he was her friend as well. I had finally managed to make her go. I didn't want her to get hurt or for anyone else to.  
We had been driving for a few hours now. We had waited for Stefan to come with us but we finally came to the realization that he was still there. I didn't want to go without him and I didn't trust Katherine with anyone else. Who knows what she might do? She was the only one that could help us now. And even though I was probably a hundred times stronger, she was very manipulative and could get away with anything.

Katherine was playing with her scrambled eggs. She had complained about being hungry and now she hadn't even taken a bite.  
"What was the point of even coming here if you won't eat?" I snapped at her getting impatient.  
She stabbed a piece of egg and plopped it into her mouth. She scrunched up her face and shook heaps of salt onto it. I laughed silently but didn't say anything.  
"Turn me." She said so softly, I almost didn't hear her and that was with my good hearing.  
"Excuse me?" I said to her in disbelief.  
"It's perfect, don't you see? I'm what Silas needs. And if I'm not a human, he will never get what he wants." She said to me and some of what she was saying was true.  
"It only helps you." I said to her through gritted teeth. "If he doesn't get what he wants, he will kill Stefan."  
"He will kill him anyway. How do you know what he will do?... Look at what he did to Damon." My throat got tight as she said that.  
He couldn't be... He just couldn't.

After a while, I looked at Katherine. I could see the pain behind her eyes. "You really do love him, don't you?" I asked her.  
She sighed. "Contrary to what I used to say, I love both of them." She said to me softly again. "I was too selfish before and I still am. There comes a moment in time when you realize that you don't deserve either one of them." She looked back at me as she pushed the eggs away from her. "I mean look at you. No offense, but your not exactly the most decisive person. First you chose Stefan, and then you chose Damon but you still love Stefan don't you?" She asked me. I stared at the empty space before her, thinking about what she was saying. I didn't reply back to her question.

Just then I heard the tingle of the bell as the door to the diner had opened. I jumped at the sound of it. I looked at Katherine and saw her eyes widened. I turned to where she looked. And my heart stopped beating.

**hey guys, thank you so much for reading! Hope you're enjoying the story :) so who walked through the door? And** **will Stefan make** **it?**


	17. Chapter 17

**Elena's P.O.V**  
I stared at him. Katherine and I both didn't move. We couldn't move. We couldn't believe our eyes.

"Damon." I said as relief flooded me. I got up and was about to go over and hug him when something grabbed me by the arm, pulling me back. "What?" I said pulling my arm out of hers. Shouldn't she be happy? Isn't this what she wanted? Didn't she just tell me a moment ago that she loved him? She should be so happy like I was right about now.  
She didn't look at me but instead looked straight at him. "This isn't possible? I saw you get staked in the heart." She said slowly. I creased my forehead as I tried to understand what she was saying. "You can't be alive."  
"Silas." I whispered horrified.

There was no one else here. The waitress was in the kitchen with the chef. It was just like a horror movie when people get killed.  
"No, it's Damon." He said a bit annoyed, " do you know how long it took me to find you? First Silas made me believe all of you were dead. All I could see were your bodies scattered on the ground. And then once I finally came out of that, I trie to find you at the address you have me. I saw you guys run out and then you were gone. It took me so long to track you down." He said walking towards us.  
"Stop!" I yelled at him before he could walk any closer. The waitress and the chef came out, looking between the three of us. "Uh... Don't worry, just go home" I said compelling them. They walked straight passed us and our of the door.  
"Elena, you have to believe me. I'm Damon." He told me but I was still worried. If Katherine was right and he was stabbed in the heart, then the person right in front of us was not Damon.  
"Why should we believe you? How did you track us down anyway?" I said eying him with suspicion.  
"Well, from passed experiences, I know Katherine eats like an elephant so I knew you would stop off at a place to eat." He simply explained to us.  
"Hey!"  
He just looked at both of us. How did we really know? Silas could get into any of our heads. He could have easily gotten into Damon's.  
"If I was Silas, wouldn't you all be dead right now?" He asked us.  
"No because you need Katherine." I said to him.  
His forehead creased, "Katherine for what?"  
I eyed him for a bit and then said, "you really are Damon." I quickly went up to him and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around me and we stayed like that for a bit. And then we heard Katherine cough in the background. I rolled my eyes and let go of Damon.

"So Stefan is really here?" He asked us after we explained to him everything we knew. We both nodded at him. "And he's still trapped with Silas?" We nodded again. "But he's alive."  
"Yes." I said to him and I could see the relief flood his whole expression. "But we don't know for how much longer."  
"But didn't you say that Silas really wants to get the love of his life back? He's been trapped in stone for 2000 years and he still wants to get her back after all this time. I mean that takes a lot of determination and love." He said to me. I could see his eyes flicker towards Katherine. I knew why. He had spent 150 years looking for her, only to realize that she was never in the tomb. I knew that Katherine was still in love with him but was he in love with her more then he was in love with me?

"I still don't get it." Katherine said to Damon. "I saw you get staked. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're okay. But how did you survive?"  
"I guess he didn't want to kill me that much. He missed my heart by an inch." Damon said shrugging. There was a moment of silence and then he said, "so what's our plan? How are we getting my little brother back?"

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
I awoke to a dark room. It wasn't completely dark though. Light seeped through the cracks in the fenced up window. It took me a second to realize that we were in a completely different room. Somewhere else.  
I tried to move my hand but to no use. I was chained to the wall... Again. I pulled and pulled with all my strength but that was no use either. My eyes scanned the room and in the corner, next to a window sat Silas.  
"How long have I been out?" I asked him.  
"Long enough to move you to a different location." He said.  
I looked around to see Anna sitting next to me on the floor. She was chained as well. She was awake too. She looked exhausted, we all were.  
"I'm going to be nice." Silas said to me. I laughed at him, humorlessly. When was he ever nice? "I'm going to give you both food." He told us. His hand moved to behind his back and he had a plate of roasted chicken, potato and pumpkin in one hand. I licked my lips as he showed us what was in the other. My eyes zoned in on the blood bag. It was all I could think about. The thirst was killing me. I wanted the blood. I needed it.  
He walked towards us with both of the foods in his hands. He stopped about a metre away from us and squatted so he was eye level with us.  
"I have been horrible, haven't I?" He asked us. He didn't wait for our reply though. "You guys are guest and I haven't even offered you anything to eat. I mean you haven't drank blood in how long? I'm surprised you haven't ripped her head off. What happened to the ripper that I heard of?" He looked and sounded like he was going crazy. I wouldn't be surprised though. He was about to give us the food and then he stopped, "not so fast." He said to us laughing, "you answer my question and I'll give you both the food. Where. Are. They?" He said and his smile looked plastered on his face. It really looked like it pained him to smile.  
"I don't know. I've been knocked out." I said.  
"Where would they be going though?" He asked me and I just shrugged. "You know, you might not want this food that much but she won't survive without this food." He said to me.  
"You need her though." I said to him.  
"Mmm... There's only one cure. And there's only one of you but there is many witches out there. Keeping her just saves me time." He said smiling.

"Why?" I asked him

"Why what?" He said.

"Why waste all this time in trying to do spell?" I asked him. "All this time and energy wasted."  
"She's the love of my life. I would do anything for her. Just like you would do anything for Elena." He said simply.

He chucked the food at us. "I'm in a good mood." He said and he got up and opened the wooden door. The cool breeze flew passed us. He then opened the chains, freeing us. "You can both go now." He said. We just looked at each other and then back to him. "Go, before I kill you." Just before we ran out of the door, he grabbed Anna's arm. He stared into her eyes for a moment and then let her go.

**Why did Silas let them go? What does he have in store for all of them? And I couldn't let damon die! I love him and Katherine together too much for that to happen haha! Thanks for reading and reviewing :)**


	18. Chapter 18

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
We had run out of what looked like a house. He had taken us somewhere else. I didn't bother looking back as I wanted to get the hell out of there.

We broke into the first car we saw. Years and years of being on earth and knowing how to hot wire a car still came in handy.  
We were driving down a long winding road. Something looked familiar about this. It couldn't be? I had never been here before. Maybe I had? Maybe I had a long time ago? Who knew anymore.  
"Where are we going?" Anna said softy. She looked much better from before but she was still weak. We both were.  
"I don't know. Just far, far away from this place." I told her.  
"We need to go back." She said as her voice got louder.  
"Are you crazy?!" I said to her. My eyes were wide as I looked at her.  
"I mean, we have to go back to Colorado. I've been to everywhere in Colorado and this does not look familiar to me at all. We need to go find my mum and your friends and family." She said to me.  
I looked back at the road. "Where are we?" I asked her suddenly as I realized that she was right. We weren't in Colorado anymore.  
"I don't know."

We stopped off at a petrol station. We could have taken any car and we took the only car that had no petrol in it. As I waited for the car to fill up with petrol, Anna got some food. I looked around at the place. It was a pretty deserted place. There were no cars at the petrol station and we had been driving for a while with no signs of any cars.  
She came out and she looked so confused.  
"What's wrong?" I asked her.  
"We're nowhere near Colorado. I just asked the cashier, we're in Virginia." She said to me.  
"What are we doing back?" I asked myself, more then I asked her. What did Silas want? Why did he bring us all the way back? And why did he let us go? "We have to find them." I said and she just nodded.

**Elena's P.O.V**  
"Hey, I did not sign up to be food." Katherine said to us.  
We were still sitting in the diner booth trying to find a plan to help Stefan and Anna but no luck so far.  
"Well, it's not really your choice." I said to her.  
She looked at Damon now, "please don't do this. Remember how we used to be. Remember our road trip we went on." She said to him. They were staring into each others eyes now.  
"Oh come on. Damon, don't listen to her. After everything she did to you?" I said angrily, "she's the only way to get your brother back alive."  
"And what? You haven't done the same thing? You pretend like you're a saint but you're just the same as the rest of us. I killed to survive, not any different from what you've done in the past. Or what they've done to protect you." She sneered at me. "How do you know he won't kill Stefan and everyone else the minute he turns?"  
Damon now interrupted us. "She's right."  
"What?" I said shocked that he would take her side. "You've actually got to be kidding?"  
"No, I'm not." His blue eyes looking into mine. "How do we know he won't kill all of us once he's gotten what he wants? We are not exactly all buddy buddy with him." He said to me. I could see Katherine smiling in the background. She was loving this. Even when she wasn't a vampire, she was still a manipulative bitch.  
"So what do we do then, Damon? I am not leaving your brother with Silas." I told him and I was sure he wouldn't leave him as well. Even after everything they had done to each other, they were still brothers. They were the only family that the other had left. They would do anything for the other.  
"We go somewhere we have the upper hand. Here, we don't know anything. He could have traps all around the city and we wouldn't even know." Damon told us.  
I creased my forehead, "so where do we go then?"  
"Home." He said with a smile, "we lure him back home."

We all took my car since Damon had taken a taxi here. Katherine sat in the back while Damon sat in the front seat next to me. I kept thinking about what Katherine had said earlier. She was right, even how much I didn't want to admit it. She was. I had hated her for everything that she had done; to my family, my friends, to Damon and Stefan... But I was just the same. I had killed that waitress and helped in killing Kol and Finn... And what about what I did to Damon and Stefan...

Stefan... His green eyes burned into mine. I remember seeing the pain in his eyes. And even after everything I had put him through, he still wanted to save me. He still wanted to save all of us. I breathed in as I tried to focus on the road ahead of me. If and when we did find him, I was going to make everything right. I needed to make everything right.

His hands grabbed a hold of my free hand. They caressed them gently. I could feel my body slightly relaxing.  
"We will find him." He reassured me. I didn't take my eyes off the road but I could feel his blue eyes burn into me. How was he so sure? He wasn't. He didn't know, we didn't know. We just had to have hope and pray that we were all going to make it out alive.

Just then there was a ringing sound coming out of Damon's pocket. He struggled to get out of his tight jean pocket.  
"Who is it?" I asked him. I could see from the rear view mirror that Katherine was curious to know who it was as well. She sat up and looked intently at Damon.  
"I don't know. It's an unknown number." He said. He slid to answer. "Hello?"

**hey guys, thanks for the reviews and reading :) hope you're enjoying this story!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey guys :) thank you for reading and reviewing! Haha yes, it was Stefan on the phone. Good guess :) I will try to update as soon as possible.**

**Katherine's P.O.V**  
It was quiet except for Damon talking on the phone. Every now and then he would crease his forehead in confusion or worry. I couldn't hear what he was saying with my human ears. That was what sucked... Actually no, everything sucked. Well except for being able to enjoy a grilled cheese sandwich without the craving for blood.

But if I was still a vampire, I wouldn't be in this situation. I would be far, far away from this place. I would be strong. I would not be having to share a car with Elena. I would not have to be food. And I definitely would not be thinking of my feelings for Damon... Or his blue eyes... Or his smile... No! Snap out of it Katherine, I thought to myself. Feelings got you nowhere, except for being killed. And I had survived this long, I wasn't going to let everything be ruined because of him.

He snapped the phone shut. He stared out the window without saying anything. Elena kept sneaking in a side ways glance at him.

They both didn't talk for a while.  
"So who was that?" I asked but no one answered. "If I'm about to be food, don't I at least get to know what is happening?"  
"You might not have to be food anymore. Well, Silas' food anyway." He said blankly.  
"What do you mean?" I asked him.  
"Stefan escaped or been released, whatever you want to call it." He said.  
I waited for him to say something but there was nothing. Not another word out of him. Wasn't that a good thing? Didn't he want his brother back? Wasn't this all to get his brother back? But how or why did Silas just let him go? I pondered that thought for a bit.  
Elena and him were having a quiet conversation to themselves. I could barely hear it. All I got out of it was Mystic Falls, lake house and Stefan.

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
I put down the phone and looked over to where the car was sat in the front seat. She looked worried as she fidgeted with her jumper. I got into the car and just sat there. I could see from the corner of my eyes that she was looking at me. I could feel the unanswered questions emanating from her.  
"What are we going to do?" She asked quietly.  
"We are going to Elena's lake house. It's kept away from everything and so no one else will get hurt." I said to her.  
She laughed but there was no humour in it. "We are going to an isolated place? So if Silas does show up, there's no place to hide? Haven't you seen in horror movies where they end up dying in an isolated place?" She said.  
"Well, luckily for us this isn't a movie." I told her.  
"You're right. It's worse then a movie." She said to me. There was silence as she looked straight ahead. I didn't know whether to talk of just let her be. Before I could do anything, she started talking again, "I know a place that's safe. The house was passed down through my family. It has spells which can protect us. We could hide there."  
I looked at her for a minute. She was a witch after all so if this were true, we would definitely be safe... But we barely knew her. How did I know I could trust her? How did any of us? This was what scared me the most. It wasn't only that we didn't know Anna, we didn't know Silas either. He could turn into anyone at any time. And there were so many unanswered questions.  
"Why don't we just meet with the rest of them at the lake house and then we will figure out where we go from there?" I suggested and she just nodded.

She didn't talk for a while. I turned up the radio so it wouldn't be awkward. We just sat there listening to the music.  
"So where is the lake house anyway?" She asked after a while.  
"It's just outside of Mystic Falls." I told her.  
"And how do we know that it's safe?" She asked. There was a slight pause. I didn't know how to answer that question. To be honest I didn't really know, myself. Damon just said that we would have the upper hand there. "You trust them a lot?" She asked me and I just nodded. "You know, Caroline told me a lot about you when we were all in college and that." I didn't know what to say to her so I just kept quiet. "So let me get this straight. You came to Mystic falls to be with Elena, your brother followed you there, then your ex shows up, then you left for a while and when you came back Elena chose you over your brother and then something happened and now she's with Damon." My heart ached at the last part but I kept a straight face. I nodded at her again. "Ouch. That must have hurt. You know what, you could sell your life story! You'd make a fortune out of it!" She said with a laugh.  
I couldn't help but laugh as well. She was starting to relax, which was a good thing. We needed her to trust us.  
"So you know a lot about me and I don't know anything about you." I said to her.  
"What do you want to know?" She asked.  
"Anything."  
"My name is Annabel Bennet. I live in Colorado. I'm a witch. My favorite colour is purple. My favorite food is a cheeseburger. I used to do gymnastics." She said. "What's with the face?" She said laughing.  
"Nothing, just didn't picture you as the gymnast type." I said to her.  
"Well, you're right. I am definitely not the gymnast type. I went to training for like a week when I was 8 and they never wanted me back again." I laughed as she said it.  
"Anything else I should know? You're not a crazy psychopath or anything?" I asked her joking around.  
"Not that I know of. I wouldn't be too sure." She said with a smile. There was a pause and then she said, "my father got killed in front of me by Silas... I'm scared about where my mum is." She told me.

**Caroline's P.O.V**

We had been hiding out in New Orleans for a few days now. There was no sign of Silas or any of them. I thought this was the safest place to go to with all the originals and that... Or maybe just because klaus was here. I shook that thought from out of my mind. He was a monster and he had hurt so many of my friends... But we were all monsters, weren't we? And he had saved most of my friends as well.

I stared blankly out the window. Jeremy and Anna's mum were sleeping.  
"Hello love." I jumped as I heard him move next to me. "Couldn't sleep?"  
"Mmm." I said softly. "I just don't know where they all are. I don't know if they're still alive." My voice shook at the last part.  
He held me tightly as I cried in his arms. It felt so good to be here right this moment.  
"Well, isn't this nice."


	20. Chapter 20

**Caroline's P.O.V**  
"Tyler? What are you doing here?" I asked him.  
I moved away from Klaus' arms and towards him. He didn't move away from me but he didn't move towards me either. I just wanted him close the small distance between us but there was something stopping me. There were so many things that I had to tell him. I had waited so long to see him again and right now, it felt like he didn't care. Was it because he had caught Klaus and me together? But Klaus and I were just... Friends wasn't the right word. To be honest, I don't really know what the word was. I didn't know what we were. We had always found our way back to each other but then there was Tyler...  
"It's not really a good idea to be a few metres away from a person that was trying to kill you only a few months ago." Klaus said with a cold smile.  
Tyler just looked at him, "was being the key word in that sentence. I'm not a walking target for you anymore remember?" He said smiling back at him.  
There was something different about that smile. I didn't think too much of it.  
"You knew all along?" I said to him, "why didn't you come back?" I asked.  
"It looks like you're already moving on anyway, why do you care?" He said as his eyes flicker towards me and then back at Klaus.  
"So why did you come back then?" I asked.  
My mind was filled with confusion. Where had he been all this time? Why had he not even contacted me? Did he even love me anymore? I had waited for him for so long and now...  
"I heard about Silas." I raised my eyebrows at what he said. How did he know? "Word gets around." He said answering my silent question. There was a slight pause and then he looked me in the eye for the first time since he got here and said, "I just wanted to see if you were okay."

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
Anna slept in the seat next to me. She curled up with my jumper covering her. Her shoulders rose up and down. She looked so peaceful.  
"You know, staring is still considered as creepy." She mumbled as her eyelids fluttered open.  
I laughed, "just making sure you're still alive." I lied to her, "You know, after everything we've been through and you being human and all..."  
"What I'm not strong? You think I need to be saved? That I'm just some weak little girl?" She said. Her tone shifting from light and joking to serious and annoyed.  
"No that's not what I meant... I just meant, you know, we have superhuman strength and we can survive and ... Sorry." I said looking back at the road, avoiding her gaze.  
She laughed at me, "thank you for making sure I was alive... And for everything else." She said to me sincerely.  
"Well, you did get me out of the safe." I said to her, "I owed you one. And anyway I couldn't leave some 'weak little girl' to fend for herself with all the baddies around." I said joking around.  
She laughed silently, "I am a witch you know. I could kill you if I wanted to." She said to me.  
I looked at her, "I am a vampire you know." I said to her flashing my white teeth as I smiled.

We pulled up into the driveway of the lake house. All the memories flooded back to me. Elena and I going here for a weekend. Us talking about the future. I remember walking up to her on the jetty and wrapping my arms around her. It had felt so right to be with her in that moment. We looked out into the lake talking about if we would ever talk about our future together. I had my arms wrapped around her and my mouth was next to her ear as I had whispered "This is a future memory. It's where your boyfriend whispered to you that he loved you. I love you."

"Are you coming?" Anna called bringing me back to reality. She was already out the car and walking towards the front door. I took a deep breath and followed her. "Where's the key?" She asked me and I pointed to the doormat. She reached underneath it and pulled out the key. The door creaked open and I followed her into the house. We were finally here and now all we had to do was wait for the rest.

**Thanks for reading and reviewing :) sorry for the short chapter!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Elena's P.O.V**  
We were half way back to Mystic Falls. Damon had taken over driving while I had a rest. Katherine slept quietly in the back. It didn't surprise me with how much food she ate. She ate so full that she got tired. Where the hell does it all go? We had only stopped twice. Once to get petrol and the other to get food for all of us. Katherine had eaten cafe food while we had stolen blood bags.  
"Why do you think he let them go?" I asked Damon.  
"Honestly, I have no clue." He said back to me.  
"What if we are walking into a trap? He needs Katherine and we have her. What if it's all just a ploy to get her?" I asked him. These questions had been circling my head throughout the drive back. How did we know what he was up to? We didn't. And the most realistic reason why he let them go was to find us.  
"We have to just trust that it isn't. And even if it is, we are all stronger now and there are three vampires and a witch." He said shrugging but I could tell that the thought had been bugging him as well.  
"How is that going to help against an immortal who can't be killed?" I asked him.  
How did we kill an immortal? With a vampire; it could be killed by a stake through the heart, ripping out the heart, burning in the sunlight. With a werewolf; it was a silver bullet, ripping out the heart. With the originals; it was the white oak stake. There was always a way to kill an immortal... Until now.  
"We could always turn him into stone?" He suggested.  
... Because that worked out so well before.

**Caroline's P.O.V**  
"You care so much that you didn't even bother to show up before?" I said to him. My voice getting higher. The surprise of seeing him had gone and was now replaced by anger.  
"Care, come on. You know I couldn't show up before." He said to me, "he would have killed me."  
"And he said that he wouldn't anymore and you knew that. All of a sudden, you show up after how many months? I have to be in danger for you to care." My voice was loud now. I could hear footsteps coming from down the stairs. Oh god, they must have heard me. They needed their sleep. I shouldn't have been so loud.

Anna's mum popped her head from around the corner.  
"Is everything okay?" She asked rubbing her eyes tiredly.  
Before I could answer, Tyler said to me as he looked me straight in the eyes, "no, you don't have to be in danger for me to come back. You could be dead for all I cared to be honest."  
I stood there shocked. My heart felt like it got ripped out of my chest.  
"I should have killed you when I had the chance." Klaus said and before I knew it, Tyler was shoved up against the wall. Klaus was breathing down his neck now. Tyler hasn't flinched, there was no sign of fear in his eyes. He smiled at Klaus and I could hear a gasp.  
"For an original hybrid, you do not live up to your name." Tyler said to Klaus as Klaus fell to the floor. "Can you really not tell who's Tyler and who's not? Do you even know the meaning of love?" He said laughing coldly at me. I couldn't move. My eyes moved from Klaus and then back to him.  
"Silas." I whispered under my breath.  
"Took you long enough. Luckily, he's not alive to see his so called true love be with someone else."  
"What did you say?" I yelled at him as I chucked him across the room. His whole body went through the wall, leaving a massive hole.  
I was about to check if Klaus was okay when he was in front of me. His green eyes were nothing like Stefan's. They were colder, more sinister.  
"The last person he saw was you. And you know what you did to him? You were right in front of him just like this." He said as his hand slowly touched my face. "He said how much he loved you and that you and him were never going to be apart again. I almost laughed but I kept a straight face as I ripped his heart out and watched his eyes turn to shock and then there was nothing left in them." I gasped as pain shot through my body. He drove the stake deeper into my body now. The pain seemed unbearable, not just physical but emotional. His cool breath was now next to my ear as he whispered, "you're lucky I'm not here to kill you." And with that he was gone. Not only was he gone but Anna's mum as well. My body was still shaking as I pulled the stake painfully out of my body.  
"Caroline!" Klaus called out to me. I could also hear Jeremy's voice as well but none of that mattered. His voice echoed through my head. Tyler couldn't be... I didn't realize I was crying until I felt a cool drop of water run down my cheek.

** Hey guys, sorry there hasn't been a stelena chapter! Hopefully soon. Hope you guys are enjoying it :)**


	22. Chapter 22

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
It was early the next morning and Anna was sleeping in one of the rooms. Every memory that I had shared in this place with Elena tried to keep coming back. I couldn't let it, I didn't want it to. She was with Damon, I kept reminding myself.

"No, I want to be here. I'd rather die and know that you were okay then live without knowing... I love you, I always will." Those words she had said to me on the day she had found me in the basement echoed in my brain. I couldn't get the words out of my head... I couldn't get her out of my head. I just couldn't shake her even how much I wanted to. Of course, I wanted to. I wanted to move on, to be able to look at her and Damon and be okay with them being together... But there was something stopping me. Something always stopped me.  
Just then I heard a car door shut. Maybe it was them? I didn't risk it though. I quickly went to where Anna was and gently woke her up. She stirred a bit and then opened her eyes. I motioned for her to follow me. The front door opened and I could feel a hand grab me by the shirt and shove me against the wall.

"Damon?" I said confused.  
"Damon! What are you doing?" I heard her call from the front door.  
Damon was eying me now. His eyes scanned over my face. "How do we know it's you Stefan and not Silas?" He asked.  
I had no answer to that. Silas could be anyone and could read anyone's mind. How did I prove to them that I wasn't Silas?  
"Just trust me." I said to him simply, "Silas would probably have you all killed by now."

Damon still had his concerns. He didn't say anything as he kept looking at me. I looked over at Elena, begging for her to believe me. I didn't say anything though, I didn't have to. She walked towards me, hesitantly at first. Once she was in front of me, her hand touched my cheek. Her brown eyes were searching mine. We stared into each others eyes until she whispered my name softly. Her arms wrapped around me tightly like I was the only thing keeping her alive. I closed my eyes, breathing in her sweet scent. It felt like we were in our own little world, nothing else mattered except that she was here right now.

I didn't know how long we had been hugging for. I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was Damon. His dark eyebrows were creased downwards a little bit, nearly unnoticeable. As I looked at him, everything hit me again. She was with him. She was with my brother. I let go of her quickly and I could see she was confused by my actions. I tried not looking at her after that but I couldn't help glancing at her every once in a while. She still looked as beautiful as the first day I met her. Her brown hair flowed passed her shoulders and her brown eyes sparkled even when there was no light around.  
"Why do we have to hide? Stefan is back. Maybe he has finally come to his senses and seen that it wasn't worth it anymore." Elena said.  
I was pacing the room, Damon was pouring a drink, Katherine was comfortably sitting on the couch next to Anna and Elena was standing opposite me.  
"He had been trapped for 2000 years and still after 2000 years, he still wants to bring the love of his life back. I don't think he'd give up that easy." Anna said to us.  
"She's right." I said agreeing with Anna. "I mean I would do anything for the one I love and if that meant bringing her back, I would do it." My eyes flickered towards Elena but I tried to focus it on something else.  
"It's a trap." Damon said with his drink in his hand. We all looked at him as he continued, "he knew that once he let you go we would find each other. All he would have to do was follow." That thought had been floating around in the back of my head. I knew it was a good possibility of why he let us go. I mean why else would he? There was no other reason unless Elena was right and he did give up but after everything he had done, I didn't think he would give up so easily.  
"So what do we do?" I asked them. Do we wait for him to come? Or do we run?  
"We hide." Anna said.  
"Hide? So we just wait here until he finds us?" Elena said.  
"Not here. I know a place where it's safer." Anna said, "we can hide there until we come up with a proper plan of attack. The more time we stay here, the more chance he had of finding us."  
"No offense, but I don't exactly trust you. I barely even know your name. How do we know that you're not working for him?" Damon asked looking at her.  
"He killed my dad." She said coldly, "I'm on your side. I want to kill him as much as you guys do."

There was a moment of silence and then Katherine spoke, "we should all listen to the witch. She's right, you know. This is probably the first place he would check. Trust me, I've been hiding for a long time."

After a few hours, we were off again. Damon had snuck back into our house to get some clothes and food for himself, Elena and I while I got food for Anna and Katherine. Anna had said the place was just on the outskirts of town so it would probably only take a few hours or so. But it would probably feel like more then that because I was sharing a car with Elena and Damon.

We were all about to leave. Damon was loading the car with the help of Anna while Katherine, being Katherine, just stood there. I walked out the back of the house to find Elena standing on the same exact jetty.  
"Remember the first time we came here?" She asked as I stood next to her looking out towards the lake. I just nodded at her. "Everything was so different. I was so different." She wasn't looking at the lake anymore, she was looking at me now. "It will never end, will it?" She asked me.  
"I have hope that it will. Someone once told me to never lose hope." I Saadi to her.  
"Who gave you that horrible advice?" She said smiling.  
"Just some girl I used to date." I smiled back at her. Her hand touched mine and I felt this tingly feeling. "We will all get through this." I said holding her hand in mine.  
"And what happens if we do? Will you leave?"  
My green eyes searched her eyes, "I don't know." Could I really leave her

**thanks for reading and reviewing :) hope you like this chapter!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Elena's P.O.V**  
Everyone was quiet for a while as Damon sat in the drivers seat and Anna directed the way. I still had a nagging suspicion that she was up to something... I know it was stupid but I couldn't help it. Damon was right. We barely even knew her and now we were putting our lives in her hands. Would we all survive once this was over?

I tried to not think about it as I stared out the window. Katherine was fidgeting next to me in the seat. She was sitting between Stefan and me and it was a miracle I hadn't killed her yet. I tried to focus on the scenery outside of the car instead of glancing at Stefan. It was pretty hard to focus since there were only trees as we headed down the long straight road. My mind kept going to the person who was sitting a seat away from me... His green eyes and honey blonde hair... The smile that made my heart feel likes it's going to beat out of my chest... No, stop it! I told myself. I was kicking myself mentally. I was still going out with Damon. I was so selfish for my own good. Damon was fun and he had made me feel alive at a time when I wasn't... But then didn't Stefan do the same? Didn't he make me feel alive? But Damon was fun, he knew how to have a good time... But then there was Stefan that had been there for me through thick and thin. That had let me have a free will. That had let me make my own decisions, however good or bad it was. I felt a connection with both of them... But which connection was stronger? Who did I love more?

"Are we there yet?" Katherine groaned next to me for the fiftieth time.  
"No." Damon said flatly.  
"How much longer?" She asked irritated.  
"However long I told you one minute ago." He said back even more annoyed.  
"I thought this house was supposed to be only on the outskirts of town, not on the other side of America." She said.  
He rolled her eyes, "it's only been like an hour. Do you have somewhere else to be?Because we can just leave you on the side of the street, if you want?" He said sarcastically.  
"Who stuck their hands into your bloody body and took bullets out for you?" She asked him.  
"Who protected you all this Summer?" He asked back at her.  
"I could have survived on my own. I have been surviving for longer then you have lived." She said to him.  
"That's not what it looked like when you begged for me to stay with you." He said.  
She rolled her eyes at him and huffed. I looked back and forth between them. I saw Stefan doing the same thing. We both looked at each other with a look of confusion pasted on our faces. Had I been right when I had told Damon that he still loved Katherine? There was just something there... A spark. Even when they were fighting you could see the love they had for each other. The love that had never left. Was I jealous? Of course I was, my boyfriend had feelings for another girl. But I had no right. None at all. After everything I had put him through and the feelings I still had for his brother... I had no right at all.

"We're here." Anna said as Damon stopped the car.  
We had been driving none stop for a while now. As we drove further out, I realized we were going deeper into a Forrest. The roads turned into dirt. The stars overhead were hanging in the dark sky as the moon shone brightly. The house that stood before us was huge. Darkness seeped through the dirty windows, encompassing the whole house. The brick walls were covered by thick vines. As we walked up the rickety porch steps with our bags in hand, cobwebs dangled high above our heads welcoming us to the house.  
"Isn't this cosy." Damon said under his breath.  
Even through the emptiness of the house, there was something beautiful about it... Something secretive like it held all the mysteries to the world... It felt like a person, dominating over us.

Anna opened the front door which had no lock on it. I wasn't surprised by the no lock as who would go all the way into the Forrest to steal something from a house that looked uninhabited for years. The door creaked open and Katherine was hiding behind Damon. Her eyes were wide and they were jumping everywhere. It was darker in here then outside. Stefan walked in front of me. He stayed close to me, probably trying to protect me. Old habits die hard.  
There was a sound of a flick of a switch and then light filled the empty house. It still had that eery feeling to it. I stayed close behind the others, listening and looking out for anything.  
"Sorry about the mess... No ones been living here for years." Anna told us as we put down the bags on the couch. "Uh... If I remember correctly, there are three rooms upstairs so some will have to share." She said to us.  
We all looked around. I was definitely not sharing a room with Katherine. So that left Anna, Stefan and Damon. Since it was Anna's house, I supposed she would want a room to herself.  
"What if Damon and Elena shared a room, Katherine and I can share a room and Anna since this is your house after all you can have a room to yourself?" Stefan suggested looking at all of us. His green eyes lingered on me a bit before he looked at Damon next to me.  
"Sounds perfect." Damon said taking my hand in his. I could see Katherine's eyes go smaller as she looked at us but she didn't say anything. Stefan didn't say anything either, he just grabbed his bags and Katherine's and went up the stairs.

As I carried my bags up the stairs, there were photos along the walls. Some of them were really old and others looked like they were taken yesterday. One of them had three people in it, two adults and a small girl. I assumed that small girl was Anna since I could recognize one of the adults as her mum. They were at a park, Anna was swinging on the swing while her dad pushed her and her mum stood to the side laughing. They all looked like a happy family. It made my heart ache at the fact that she didn't have that anymore, we all didn't have that anymore... Not a single one of us.

I walked into the room and my eyes were taken aback by how big it was. There was a huge wardrobe next to the white walls, the window was a full length overlooking the forrest and the king sized bed sat in the middle of the room. On that bed sat Damon. His eyes were looking at the wooden floor and it didn't move as I went into the room.  
"You know why we are in the same room?" He said finally looking up at me. I shook my head. "Because Stefan believes that we are together. That we are a couple... But it doesn't feel like we are anymore. I still love you, of course I do." He said to me.  
"And I love you." I whispered back to him.  
"But how long have we been fooling ourselves?" He asked not looking at me anymore, "is it even worth trying?"  
Our eyes locked together as silence filled the room, enclosing us in with it.

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
"The left side is mine." Katherine said to me.  
"After all this time, it's still the left side?" I asked her.  
She smirked at me, "yes, and after all this time you still remember what side I sleep on? I must have been pretty good in bed." She said laughing and she still had that amazing laugh that always made you laugh.  
I rolled my eyes at her, laughing with her.  
It was only about seven at night and Katherine was already sleeping. She must have been tired from all the driving. We were all tired but I couldn't get to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I could feel the water against my skin. I felt like I was trapped in that metal safe all again. I would open my eyes gasping every time. I didn't know what to do so I walked downstairs. I didn't want to disturb Katherine and definitely not Damon or Elena.

I could feel a presence in the darkness as I walked towards what I assumed was the kitchen. I creeped slowly towards it. It wasn't Damon or Elena as I heard a mumbling coming from their room. And Katherine was fast asleep in our room. I looked at the figure that sat in the darkness.  
"Anna?" I called to the figure.  
It shifted slightly and I turned on the switch on the wall next to me. I could now see her properly. Her eyes squinted in the light. There were bags under her eyes, they looked puffy and red. Had she been crying?  
"I couldn't sleep." She said simply.  
"Me neither." I said sitting on the chair opposite her.  
There was a moment of silence as we just sat there. It wasn't awkward, it felt comfortable.  
"So why couldn't you sleep anyway?" She asked me. "I didn't even think vampires slept actually."  
I laughed, "they don't. It's good to sleep though." I told her and then said, "I just felt so alone... I know that's stupid since I have all of you here but I think I've always felt alone in this world... I mean the only time I haven't was when I was with..." I stopped there. I couldn't say it. I didn't want to say it.  
She gave me a sympathetic look. "You'll find someone. My mum always said to me that there was more fish out there in the sea." She said to me with a small smile, "you will find someone and when that happens, all that loneliness and emptiness will disappear. You won't have to feel it anymore."  
"I thought I had found that someone." I said quietly.  
She put her hand on mine, "there are other people out there. There's not only one true love. That only happens in books and movies." She said to me, "and if you base your whole life on a book like the notebook, you're going to be searching for that one person for a long time." She said to me.  
"Well, it's lucky I have eternity to look for that one person." I said smiling. We stayed like that for a while and it felt so good to talk to someone about it. Lexi was gone and Caroline as well... It felt nice to have someone else other then Damon and Elena. "So what's kept you up?" I asked her. She didn't say anything. She just looked down at the wooden table. You listened to my problems, it's only fair if I listen to yours." I said to her.  
She moved her fingers along the table, tracing the lines that had been etched in.  
"I'm scared... Scared and lonely... I mean I'm scared of being lonely." She said to me as her eyes looked into mine. "My dad... And now my mum..."  
"Hey, hey it's going to be okay. Your mum is with Caroline and trust me, she's safe." I said holding her hand again and smiling at her.  
She smiled back at me and then her eyes were focuses on something behind me. The smile faded and her brows creased.  
"Mum?" She asked as she got up.  
I turned to see the familiar fragile body, the same one I saw when we were all locked up. But there was something different about her. Her smile was not one of warmth, it was cold and sinister.  
"Silas." I said under my breath as I grabbed Anna's hand and held her back.

**hey guys :) thanks for reading and reviewing. Hope you're enjoying the story! Will they all make it out alive?**


	24. Chapter 24

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
Where's Damon and Elena and Katherine? I tried to focus on the rooms upstairs but there was no noise. No voices. No movement. Nothing. My heart was beating fast now. I was more scared then anything. Scared for them. How could we be so stupid?

I looked into his cold eyes as he smiled back at us.  
"You know what, your mum might not be here in this very house but she is near." He said smirking at us now.  
"What did you do to her?" She screamed as she struggled to get out of my arms. I held her tightly so she wouldn't attack him.  
"Stefan, let her go." He said calmly. "I would love to tell her mother how I killed her daughter. I mean could she really handle her daughter being killed just after her husband died?"  
"YOU-"  
"I-what?" He said laughing now. "What could you possibly say to me that would hurt me? What could you possibly do?"  
He was right. There was nothing that we could do. In the end he would get what he wanted. We were stupid to even think we would get away from him.  
I sighed. "If we help you, would you let them go? I assume you have them somewhere, right?" I said to him. Anna had calmed down a bit but I still held onto her just in case.  
"Yes I do. I'll bring you to them but you're really in no position to negotiate. It is time. We are going to do this spell if you like it or not." He said to us. He motioned for us to follow him. He didn't bother tying us or grabbing us to make sure we didn't run. He knew like we both knew that if we did run, he would catch us. What was the point?

As we went further away from the house, it got darker and darker. Anna stumbled next to me so I held her hand as we walked behind Silas.  
"Why so far?" I asked him.  
"The further away from the main roads and the house, the harder it is for all of you to run." He said.  
All of us? What did he mean by all of us?  
I could see a tiny flickering light in the distance. It got bigger and brighter as we got closer. Then I knew what he was talking about.  
"Elena!" I screamed as I saw her tiny body being chained to a tree. I could see the fear in her eyes. I tried to run to her but Silas stuck his arm out to stop me.  
"Not so fast." He said, "she's all yours once we are finished here... Well if your both still alive."  
He turned around to face us. His back towards the fire. He was happy that it was all working out now. We couldn't do anything and he loved that.

"Mum!" Anna yelled. I turned around to see her mum chained to a tree opposite Elena. Her eyes were much calmer. Like she was ready. If this was the end, she was ready. I turned around frantically, searching. And then I saw him. Damon. He had tied them all up. One tree each that surrounded the fire... Except for Katherine. She was towards the middle of the area.  
"Now, we have everyone here. And you also all have incentive a well. You all have incentive as well. Someone you love is tied up to a tree. If you don't do as I say, I'll kill your love one." He said still smiling at us and then he turned to me. "You have double the incentive. Your brother and the love of your life. And trust me, I know the lengths you would go to keep her alive. You know Stefan, you and I have more in common then just looks."  
"I have nothing in common with you." I said through gritted teeth.  
"Really?" He said laughing, "we both would do anything for the people we love. We both have been double crossed by people who we thought were close to us."  
"I don't kill people to get what I want. I don't kidnap people to get what I want." I said.  
"Are you all that ignorant of your actions?" He said incredulously. "How many people have you sacrificed and killed to keep this one alive?" He said pointing at Elena. "You might think I'm the bad one here but you're all just as bad as I am, if not worse."  
I just stared at him. I didn't know what to say. How many people had we killed? Kol... His whole line of people... All those people I had killed when I was the ripper...

He was right about all of that but he was more right about one thing. We would do anything for the people we love. My eyes locked onto Elena's eyes. I just wanted to rip the chains off her. I wanted her to be free from all this. I couldn't bare to see her die. I didn't care anymore. I didn't care if she was with my brother. As long as she was okay. As long as they were both okay, I would be happy.  
"Please just let them go." I pleaded with him. "We will do the spell. Please."  
"I'll think about it." He said to me and he grabbed my arm and Anna's as well and threw us into the middle with Katherine. "I might be nice when all of this is over."

Anna was shaking as she stood up. I could tell she had given up.  
"I need both your hands." She said. She didn't look at Silas as she hesitantly grabbed his hand and pressed it against mine. She took a deep breath and looked over at her mum. I saw her mum give her a slight nod. She closed her eyes as she put he hand over both of ours. She started to mutter a few words under her breath. Everything went silent, there was not a sound coming from anywhere. The trees had gone silent, the wind ceased, there were no animals.  
Then all of a sudden a rush of wind came. It felt like it was trying to pull me, it was trying to pull everything inside of me out. Everything went to black as I felt myself fall to the ground.

* * *

My eyes fluttered open. I could feel the power run through my veins. It felt weird. I didn't feel like me anymore. I looked around to see Elena curiously looking at both of us. Probably wondering if it had worked. I got up to see Silas smiling in my body. It had worked.

My first thought was to free them. I ripped the chains off Elena and I could feel her arms go around me.  
"I love _you_, Stefan." She whispered into my ear.  
I looked into her brown eyes and gave her a small smile. "I will always love you." I said back to her, "but right now you have to run." Even though it was so hard to let her go, I had to. I had to free my brother. I grabbed his chains and ripped it off him. He pulled me into a hug and then let go of me. He looked into my eyes and nodded. But before he went, he was looking behind me. Silas had sauntered over to where Katherine sat. Her eyes were big with fear as she looked up at him. He dug his teeth into her as she screamed.  
"Go help Anna and her mum." I told Damon but he didn't move. He just looked at Katherine. "Go!" I screamed at him. He snapped out of it and went to go free Anna's mum.

I pushed Silas off of Katherine. He fell backwards as I pulled Katherine far away from him. Her hands clung to me for life.  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He said to me.  
"Or what? You can't kill me anymore." I said to him. "You should have thought it through more before you went through with the plan." I walked towards him but he didn't flinch or move back. He stood his ground, almost smiling. "You should not have messed with the people I loved." I stuck my hand through his chest and grabbed his heart.  
I could hear him gasp but he only smiled more. "I did think it through. None of you would kill me, especially not you." He said to me.  
"Why not?"  
"Didn't Anna tell you?" He asked and then he saw my confused face and started smirking. He clicked his tongue. "It's not just looks that we share. We are linked. Why do you think you are the ripper? I've been starved for 2000 years. You were drinking for both of us. Why do you think I didn't kill you? Why would I lock you in a safe? Is it because I wanted you to starve?" My eyes widened at what he was saying. If we were linked that meant... "It's because if you die, I die. My doppelgänger was made so that I could be killed. You were the loophole in the spell. If someone else took the cure, it was you that would bring me to an end."  
I just stared at him. Everything made sense now. I looked back at Damon and saw the pain in his eyes as he looked into mine. He shook his head at me, knowing what I was going to do. My eyes then focused on Elena. Our eyes were locked together. It felt like we were in our own little world.  
"You were right." I said as I turned back to Silas. "I would do anything for the people I love. I would even kill myself for them." His eyes were now widened as I pulled his heart out.  
"No!" I heard her scream. That was the last thing I heard as everything went dark.

**Sorry guys! I know most of you will probably hate me for the ending! But there will be more chapters and It won't be the end of Stefan and Elena. It won't be the last time they talk. This will just be another barrier they both have to overcome.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Jeremy's P.O.V**  
It had been a week since that day. No one had talked. No one even mentioned his name. Or even went into his room. No one could handle it.

Even Katherine had been taking this hard. We all knew that she had a soft spot for him. But I don't think it was only that. I think that somewhere inside of her, she couldn't bare to see Damon hurting or in pain. And Damon was hurting really bad, even if he didn't admit it. We could see it. He wasn't himself. All his energy was focused on finding a way.

He tried his hardest to find a way to get him back. Damon forced Anna to help since he blamed her for most of it because he couldn't blame Silas. But everyone knew there was no way... Unless you give someone else's life away. And even how much Damon blamed her, he wouldn't want her to die. He just wanted his brother back.

Caroline did what she always did, she tried to make everything better. She tried to fix everything but we all knew she was running away from her own problems. This impacted her a lot as Stefan had been her best friend and not only that, she had lost Tyler. Sometimes her optimism wavered but she tried for the rest of us.

And then there was my sister. Elena had taken this hard. She was hardly ever here and when she was here, she didn't say anything. I know she was trying to put on a brave front for the rest of us. She knew we were all taking it hard but I just wish that she would let us in. That I could help her. I could hear her softly crying every time she was in the house. Everything reminded her of him. All the memories, every feeling, every laughter they shared, all the good and bad times they had gotten through. I know that she blamed herself for what had happened but she didn't say anything.

Her and Damon hardly spoke. When they were in the same room, they didn't even talk to each other. The last time they had talked was straight after that night. They had fought and argued and in the end thought it was best to break up.

I took a deep breath as I stood outside the door. I had paced up and down waiting for the right moment to knock. I knew she could hear me but she didn't come out. She didn't say anything. I was really worried about her but luckily she hadn't turned off her emotions. I don't think we could handle it another time or that she could handle it when she turned it back on.

I knocked on the door quietly, waiting for an answer. There was a moment of silence and then I opened the door slowly.  
"Elena, please come out. It's not good to be in here so much." I said to her. Her back was facing me as she looked out the window. She didn't say anything. "This isn't good for you. Just let us help you." I waited there for a few minutes. She still hadn't said anything. I didn't know what to do anymore. We had all lost someone important in our lives. Everyone was reeling from it. I couldn't help all of them. I couldn't even help her.  
"I'm always here if you need me." I told her. Not a word came out of her mouth so I walked out of the room, closing the door behind me.

I fell onto the couch chair. "I don't know what to do!" I said frustratedly running my hands through my hair. I could sense a presence near me. I groaned because I knew who it was. They were always following me. Both of them had been. Talking to me. Arguing to me. Annoying me. But it was good to see them. I knew I had to tell the others but I couldn't bring myself to do it. They were gone. Dead. The others needed to move on with their lives. My sister couldn't love a ghost forever.  
"Jer." She said as she put her hand on my shoulder. I couldn't even feel her touch. "It will get easier. They will move on."  
"But when?" I asked but there was no answer. We all just stood there in silence. I turned to both of them. "Why did you do it?" I screamed frustratedly. "Look at what you did to all of us. I should have been the one to die. You should have let me stay on the other side." I said to Bonnie. I then turned to Stefan, "you should have just let Silas be! You should have let him do whatever. Was it really that bad to let him get what he wanted?" I screamed at both of them letting all my anger out. I needed to say it. I knew it wasn't their fault, they were just trying to do the right thing. Always the right thing. Why couldn't the right thing just be easy? Why was it so damn hard?

I could feel them staring at me as I tried to calm down. My breathing started to become even again but I still felt the anger surging through me.  
"Is there a way for you to come back?" I asked them softly. Almost like I didn't want to hear the answer. I saw her shake her head. I put my head in my hands, closing my eyes.

**Hey guys, thanks for reading and reviewing :) hope you are enjoying the story! please check out my new story, it's all human and has just Stefan and Elena :) thank you!**


	26. Chapter 26

**Elena's P.O.V**  
Emptiness. Loneliness. My heart broke into a million pieces as I had watched him fall to the floor. His eyes were so full of life... Then they were just gone. I remember hands restraining me as I tried to go to him. To see him. To see if this was real. That night had replayed in my head a thousand times. And a thousand times it felt like it had cut me. Each time cutting me deeper.

Sometimes I wished that I had never met him. Never felt the love I had for him because then I would never have to feel this pain. But then I'd rather remember the love I have for him then never know what it was like to be so in love.

Ever since Silas had come into our life, it felt like we had been digging a hole for ourselves. And ever since that night, we had stopped digging and now we were stuck in ditch looking up. No one knew how to get out and as much as any of us tried, we couldn't. People who we all loved were taken away from us and the people who were left were all emotionally gone. Nothing was the same anymore.  
Jeremy had come into my room a couple of times but I didn't say anything. Whenever I opened my mouth I started crying. I didn't want him to see me like this. I didn't want any of them to see me like this. I hated feeling weak. I just wanted him back. Was that too much to ask for?

I needed to get some air. I tried to sneak off before anyone could catch me but I heard someone behind me.  
"You can't keep running for ever." She said behind me. Before all of this, there was so much enthusiasm and optimism in her voice but now all I could hear was the sadness. "It will always be there. That feeling."  
"Yea, because you know so much." I said rudely. Just after I said it I regretted even opening my mouth. I saw the sadness in her eyes. "Aw Caroline." I said to her sympathetically as I went to hug her. I wrapped my arms around her. I could hear her quietly sob.

After a while, I let go of her. I looked into her sad eyes.  
"We will get through this." I said putting as much energy as I could muster to sound optimistic.  
"I've known you for how long? I know when you lie." She said to me. There was a pause. She wasn't looking at me anymore, she was looking off into the distance now. "How did everything get so screwed up?" She said as tears fell from her face. "I just- I can't..." I hugged her again, trying to soothe her. Hearing and seeing her cry was making me start to cry. I needed to get out of here... But I couldn't leave her like this. She needed her friend here.

I moved her to the couch, still soothing her.  
"Caroline, we will all get through this." I said to her over and over again, "they would want that."  
"I know. I know. But it's easier said then done." She sobbed. Her eyes drifted to something behind me. "What are you doing here?" She asked.  
I turned around to see him standing there. I went into defense mode but he just put his hands up like he wasn't going to attack us.  
"I just came to check on you." He said to Caroline. He started walking closer to us, slowly.  
"I don't think it is a good idea." I said to him. I still remember everything he had done to us. His infatuation with Caroline didn't change anything.  
"Elena." She said softly.  
I looked at Caroline and saw the way that she was looking at him. The way their eyes longed for each other. "I'll let you guys talk it out." I said to them.  
Caroline took her eyes away from him and looked at me. "I'm not going to leave you alone."  
"I'll be fine." I said giving her a smile. "If you need anything, call me okay?" She just nodded at me.

I went to the one place that I had been going to for the last few days. It was where Stefan and I had bumped into each other. It was where he lay to rest now. I looked at the tombstone that was engraved with his name. I closed my eyes, trying to keep the tears in but I couldn't.  
"Why?" I asked aloud. My voice wavered a bit. "Why, Stefan? Why did you leave me? I know that after everything I did to you, after I broke your heart that I have no right. That you were saving us. But I can't lie without you. Every time I am in that house, I think you're just going to walk through the door but you don't. All the memories that we shared. I love you. I've always been in love with you." I said breaking down.

**Damon's P.O.V**  
All the sadness, all the grief, every single emotion I had were turned into only one. Anger. I would find a way to get him back. There had to be a way.

I grabbed another stone from the ground and chucked it as far as I could.  
"You call yourself a vampire. That's a pretty pathetic throw." I heard her say behind me, "I'm pretty sure I could throw further and I'm human." She said with a smile on her face.  
I gave her a small smile, "oh really? I'm pretty sure I could chuck you further then you could throw a small stone." She gave a little laugh as she stood beside me. "So what brings you here? I know you've been avoiding me."  
She crinkled her eyebrows a bit before she said, "you noticed?"  
"I'm much more observant then you give me credit for." I said to her. She looked out into the lake, her brown curly hair was flowing behind her.  
"I came here to tell you that I was leaving." My eyes widened at what she said. "I just wanted to thank you for everything that you have done for me."  
"You're just going to leave? Why?" I asked her.  
"I want to start a new life. You've taught me so much." She said to me, holding my hand in hers. "You've taught me how to be human. You've helped me find my heart again. Something I thought I had lost a long time ago."  
"Then why are you leaving? Why not stay?" I said moving her hand close to my chest.  
"I know when I'm not wanted." She said with a small smile.  
"I want you here." I said quickly to her before I could stop myself. Every feeling that I tried to ignore just came rushing out. "I want you here." I said to her again more slowly.

**Hey guys, thanks for reading and reviewing :)**


	27. Chapter 27

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
I sat next to her as she cried. I put my arms around her to comfort her but it was to no use. She couldn't feel my touch and she couldn't see me. I groaned in frustration. I hated seeing her upset and I knew it was all my fault. All I wanted was to see her smile again. For her to be happy. I could see that she was pushing everyone away. Everyone who meant the world to her. This included my brother.  
"I'm so sorry." I whispered to her. My eyes full of water. She was still crying a lot.

I sat with her until she went back to the house. It had been a couple of hours. She had took a blood bag to her room and drank that. I watched her as she drained the bag. After that she didn't do anything else. She just sat on the bed staring off into space.

I went to go find him. He was the only one who could help me now.  
"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Bonnie asked me as I was just about to ask Jeremy. She stood right in front of me, blocking my way to Jeremy.  
"You don't even know what I was going to say." I said to her but I could see that she knew.  
"You want Jeremy to pass on a message for you?" She assumed.  
"Stefan, that's not a good idea." Jeremy said to me. What did he know? He was just a kid. Elena needed to know that I was there for her. She needed someone to be there for her.  
"Look at her! She's miserable. All she has to know is that I'm here for her and that I love her." I said frustratedly.  
"She's better off not knowing. You know if she finds out that she won't move on." Jeremy told me.  
"She's not moving on now." I argued. "Please. I can't bare to watch her like this." I pleaded with them. "Every time I see her, she's crying. I just want to make her happy. I want to see that smile of hers."  
Bonnie put her hand on my shoulder. "She will move on. You just have to give her time. She's one of the strongest people I know." Bonnie said to me in a soft tone.  
I knew they were right but she was hurting so much. It hurt me to see her like this.  
"We all want the same thing. We want to help her but telling her wont do any good." Jeremy said.  
"Tell me what?" I heard her say from the doorway. Jeremy didn't say a thing. "Telling me what?" Her tone was harsher now. "Jeremy? He's here right now isn't he?" Jeremy still didn't say anything and we couldn't even if we tried. We just stared at her. "Stefan's here isn't he? He's been here all along? Why? Why did you kill yourself? Are you happy now?" She said raising her voice. She turned around trying to find where I was but it was no use. I was invisible to her now.  
"Because I love you." I said softly.  
"Because he loves you, Elena." Jeremy said just as softly as I had said it.  
Her eyes widened. "He's really here." She said slowly. "Where is he?"  
Jeremy pointed towards me. He grabbed her hands and guided her to me. He put her hands in mine. I just wanted to hold her in my arms but I couldn't. I could see that she was calming down. All the feelings and emotions were overwhelming her.  
"I love you too, Stefan. I am so sorry for everything I put you through. I'm sorry for what I just said. And I'm sorry for everything." She said to me and I could see tears forming in her eyes. "Please, forgive me." She whispered.  
"No." I said. "There's nothing to forgive." There really was nothing to forgive. She was allowed to love anyone she wanted.  
"He says that there is nothing to forgive." Jeremy said to her.  
"Always a gentleman." She said with a smile as tears ran down her face.

"Someone else wants to talk to you." Her eyebrows raised as Jeremy said that.  
"Tell her that I love her. And I'm so sorry for everything." Bonnie said.  
"Bonnie says that she loves you and she's sorry." Jeremy said to Elena. I could see Elena's eyes widened.  
"She's here as well." She said with more tears coming out. "Tell her thank you so much for bringing you back but she shouldn't have given her own life away."  
"You needed your brother. He was the only family you had left." Bonnie explained. Bonnie had given up something that not a lot of people would for their friends. Her whole life was gone and now she was stuck in this dimension where she could see her friends and family but they could not see her. She was trapped. We all were.  
"She said that she wanted you to have a family." Jeremy repeated to Elena.  
"You are also a part of my family, Bonnie. Your like a sister to me. You are my sister." She said looking around to where Bonnie would be. Bonnie was crying and I put my hand around her and still held one of Elena's hands.

There was a long pause as we all just stood there. It felt right to all be together.  
"What happens next?" Elena asked cautiously like she didn't want to know the answer. "Will you both move on?" Her voice wavered at the last part.  
"Maybe." Bonnie said softly. "But we won't until you're okay. Until all of you are okay."  
"Bonnie said that they will wait for when we are all okay." Jeremy said after a while. I could tell from his face that he didn't want us to go. He didn't want Bonnie to go especially. I could the way they longed for each other with the way their eyes met. I felt sorry for them because they were taken away from each other too quickly.

"No." I heard his voice from the doorway. We all looked at Damon. "Listen to me, brother. We are going to find a way to get you back, both of you. Got me? Don't you dare move on." Damon said trying to control his voice. There was a sadness behind his eyes but I didn't know where it was coming from or what caused it. Was it because of what happened with me? No, this was something new. It was like he was drowning in sadness. I know all the bad things that he has done in the past but he didn't deserve this pain. "After making me into a vampire, you owe me one."  
"I can't stay here forever." I said to him. Sooner or later I would have to move on. We all knew that whether we liked it or not. "You will all move on. You will one step at a time. You have each other. One day I will just be a memory."  
"He says that you won't need him after a while. That we will all move on." Jeremy said for all of them to hear.  
"No." He said more harshly. "Don't you dare tell me that bullshit. You're my brother. My _brother_. If there is a way to get you back, I will find it."

There was silence after that. No one talked. I couldn't let my brother give up his time or life for me. They needed to move on. We all needed to move on. I could see that Bonnie was going a little crazy. Being trapped here was the worse. There was no human contact or any contact as well. And even when she could talk to Jeremy, there was no physical contact. How long more could Bonnie and I stay here like this?

**Caroline's P.O.V**  
We stood metres apart outside of the Salvatore house. We both didn't speak. I could feel his eyes burning into my skin. But I didn't dare look. I was too afraid of what I would think or feel.  
"What do you want from me?" I asked him after a while. I peeked a glance at him and regretted it. I could feel all these emotions that I didn't want to feel boil to my surface. I looked back at the ground again before he could notice. He probably did notice since he was a vampire.  
"I don't want anything. I just want to make sure you're okay." He said simply.  
"Yea sure." I said sarcastically. "After everything you have done. If it wasn't for you, Tyler would still be here." He flinched slightly at what I accused him for.  
"Oh yes, because I ripped his heart out myself." He said even more sarcastically moving closer towards me.  
"You wanted to." I said letting all my anger out on him. Before I knew it, his face was inches away from mine. I could feel his breath on my lips.  
"I let him come back to town. What more do you want from me?" He asked.  
And then he moved his lips to mine. I could feel the electricity flow as our lips moved together. His hands were cupping my face and my hands wrapped around his neck. It felt so good. It felt so right... But it couldn't be? Could it?

"No, I can't." I said pushing him away. "I don't want to have these feelings for you. I can't have these feelings for you."  
"And why not?"  
"After everything you have done to my friends, it doesn't change a thing." I said to him and saw the pain in his eyes. But the next second they went cold. "I can't." I said softly.

**Hey guys, thanks for reading and reviewing. Tell me what you think :)**


	28. Chapter 28

**Jeremy P.O.V**  
Damon, Elena, Stefan, Bonnie and I sat in the living room. We waited for Anna to get here. I was surprised that she hadn't done a runner. Although, Damon made it pretty clear that if she did run, he would find her and it would be worse then what Silas had done to her. I didn't like his methods but it was the only way. It was the only way to get them back.

The air was tense as we waited. I could hear footsteps on the front porch. Damon got up as the front door opened. He let out a frustrated sigh.  
"It's good to see you as well." Caroline said as she walked in. She plopped herself next to Elena. "So what are you guys doing anyway?"  
"Waiting for Anna." Elena said to her. "We are hoping that she has a way to get them back."  
"There is a way." I heard Anna say from the doorway. Her eyes were weary of everyone in the room. Her mum was nowhere to be seen but I assumed that was probably because she didn't want her to get hurt.  
The door opened again and Katherine walked in. Elena pressed her lips together in a thin line with disapproval. She had never liked Katherine, and no one blamed her for that after what Katherine did to all of us. But now that Katherine had wormed her way back into Damon's heart she didn't want that. Although, I could tell that she loves Stefan more, she still cared for Damon and didn't want to see him get hurt by her again.  
"I thought you had left?" Damon asked her with curiosity in his eyes. His eyes were locked with Katherine's as they just stared at each other.  
"She's here to help." Anna said.  
"Help? What could she do?" Elena asked in disbelief. Elena did have a point thought. What could Katherine possibly do?  
"I can do a spell to bring them back. But only one as I only have one volunteer." I creased my forehead in confusion. Volunteer? Only one comes back? "To bring someone back, I need someone to die to take their place like Bonnie did for Jeremy,"  
"No!" I heard Damon yell as he looked from Anna to Katherine. He was inches away from Katherine now. "There has to be another way. Don't do this." He pleaded for her.  
"There is." She barely whispered it.  
"I can tie one of them and Katherine together and make Katherine a vampire. She will still live but as a vampire."  
"No! No way in hell. This is what she had wanted since she became a human again. She wants to be strong. She is just using us." Elena said quickly getting up from the couch. "We are not letting her eat what she wants." Elena pointed to Katherine.  
Damon turned to Elena. "This is the only way to get Stefan back. Don't you want that?" Damon asked her. I could see the inner conflict that Elena was having. Let her enemy get what she wants and have Stefan back or don't let her enemy get what she wants and not have Stefan back?  
"What about Bonnie?" I said to them. We couldn't leave Bonnie in there.  
"Or Tyler?" Caroline said.  
"Do you really want wolf boy back? Isn't klaus enough for you." Damon said to her. Caroline didn't say anything after that. Elena put her hand on Caroline's to comfort her.  
"And what about Bonnie? After everything that she has done for all of you? We are not leaving her there." I argued to them. Damon might not listen but Elena and Caroline surely will. Bonnie was their best friends as well.  
"We only have one Katherine." Damon said but I could see that he didn't want to leave Bonnie there as well.  
"I'll do it. I'll volunteer." I said quickly.  
"No!" Elena said to me. "You'll be a vampire. You won't be human anymore."  
"Don't you want to have your annoying brother for eternity?" I joked but then I saw that she didn't take the joke so well. "She sacrificed herself for me so shouldn't I sacrifice something for her?"  
No one said anything. The room was silent. Everyone was thinking about what was going to happen next.  
"Are you both sure?" Anna asked Katherine and I. "It's a lot to ask for."  
"Not for Katherine." Elena mumbled under her breath. We all just pretended like we didn't hear it.  
"Yes." I said and Katherine nodded.  
"It may not work, you may die. Vampires are unnatural. They unbalance nature so this may not work." Anna said to us. I could feel the room tense up.

Which one of us were willing to go first? Which one was willing to take that chance? Was I?

**Hey guys hope you are enjoying this chapter :) sorry this chapter is a bit short. I might just be updating once a week with school and all so it won't be as fast as I usually post these chapters. Please review and tell me what you think :)**


	29. Chapter 29

**Jeremy's P.O.V**  
"I'll go first." My head snapped towards her direction. Katherine had said that confidently but I could see the fear in her eyes.  
"Are you sure?" Damon said and I could see the fear in Katherine's eyes reflected in his. She just nodded not saying anything. Damon was holding onto her hands like it was the only thing keeping him alive. We all turned away to give him a moment.  
"I'm sure." Katherine said again. Her voice was much softer now. "This is what I want. After everything I put you all through, it's the least I could do."  
"Normally people just say sorry." Damon joked but I could still see that he was scared for her. Katherine laughed quietly. She was shaking and Damon pulled her into his arms.  
They were like that for a few minutes. We all turned away giving them a few minutes.

"Are you sure, Jer?" Elena asked quietly as she stood next to me.  
"As sure as I can be." I said. I didn't know what else to say. Was there anything else I could say?  
"I don't... I don't know what I'd do if I lost you again." She barely whispered to me. Her big brown eyes looked into mine and I pulled her into a hug.  
"Nothing will happen." I said into her ear. "It's for the best." And that wasn't a lie. It was for the best. We would have everyone back. It would be like normal except I would be a blood crazed vampire.

"Let's do the spell." Katherine said. Damon and her were still holding looked into each others eyes for a moment like they were communicating something that no one else could understand or hear. Katherine was the first one to pull away. "So what do I have to do?"  
"You need vampires blood." Anna said to her. She moved closer towards Katherine.  
"You can drink mine." Damon offered. I watched as Damon bit into his wrist. His blood dripping slowly out of his arm.  
"It doesn't look as appetizing as when I was a vampire." She said wrinkling her nose at the sight. She took a deep breath and then she put her mouth of his wrist, drinking up his blood.  
She pulled away wiping the sides of her mouth. Her face was still scrunched up from the taste. A small smile appeared on Damon's face from the face Katherine was pulling.  
Anna now looked at me. "I need you to guide Stefan over here and to put his hand in mine." She said to me. I watched as Stefan walked over to where Katherine and Anna stood. He put his hands in Anna's. I nodded at her telling her that he had done it.  
"He's holding onto your left hand." I said to her because she wouldn't have known which one.  
"Okay, are you ready?" Anna asked Katherine as she held onto Katherine's hand in her right hand.  
"Ready as I will ever be." She said to Anna.  
"Okay." Anna said as she closed her eyes. She started mumbling something under her breath. The room was silent as we all watched intently for what was going to happen.

All of a sudden Katherine started gasping for air as Anna opened her eyes. Damon caught Katherine as she collapsed. Her body went limp. Elena wasn't standing behind me anymore.  
"Thank god." Elena said as she hugged the bronzed haired man that stood in front of us.

**Okay, so this will probably be the last chapter for the week. I'll try an update as soon as possible. Hope you are enjoying the story. Tell me what you think :)**


	30. Chapter 30

**Hey guys, hope you enjoy the chapter! Tell me what you think **

**Stefan's P.O.V  
**Her touch was the first thing I felt. Her arms tightened around me.

"Thank God you're back." She whispered into my ears. It felt like we were the only ones in this room right now even though I could feel the rest of them watching us. I had missed her touch. This feeling. The feeling of being around her. Of being with her. My arms wrapped around her like she was the only thing that was keeping me alive right now.

"I love you." I whispered back to her. "I love you so much." I could feel the tears in my eyes try to escape. The joy I felt right now was unexplainable. It was unimaginable.  
"I love you too." She said and I could feel my heart jump at those words. "I always will." She said.

We stayed in that moment. I didn't know for a how long. Elena let go of me but she was holding my hand in hers. I squeezed her hand as I smiled at her.

"Stefan!" Caroline squealed as she came over to me and hugged me. I let go of Elena's hand to hug Caroline. I had missed her too. I missed her bubbly attitude. "You're back!" She said with happiness but I could see the sadness in her eyes.

I pulled her back a bit and looked into her eyes. "I am so sorry about what happened to Tyler." I said to her.  
She looked at the ground for a bit and I felt a pang of guilt. Why should I get to come back when others didn't? It wasn't fair. Even how much I loved being back, being with them all, why should I get this chance when no one else did? Why should they risk their lives for me?

Her greenish blue eyes looked up at me, "Did you see him?" She asked quietly.

I shook my head giving her a sympathetic look. "Bonnie had said something about how the people in that dimension can't see anyone else. That we are all alone. Only witches can see other people due to magic or something." I explained to her. At the thought of Bonnie, I looked around scanning the room for her. She smiled back at me as she stood next to Jeremy. There was a look of joy and satisfaction as she knew the spell had worked but there was also loneliness in her eyes. She had lost a lot over the years, it wasn't just us. She was probably one of the strongest people I knew. After everything that happened, she kept on going. She was always there for us no matter what. Both of them were. Both, Caroline and Bonnie. Looking out for all of us.  
"Stefan?" I heard Caroline's voice calling me back to reality. "What are you looking at?" she asked with confusion as she looked at the place I was looking at.  
"Bonnie." I said simply. She was right there. How could they not see her? Then my eyes widened at the thought.  
"You can see the dead now." Elena said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. It was like she had a feeling that this would happen. "The same thing happened with Jeremy when he came back from the dead." She was right. It was the same thing. Then it finally hit me. I was back… I was alive… I was hungry. Hungry for…

"No, no it couldn't be." I said softly to myself. "I'm… I'm human again." I said slowly to myself trying to make sense of the situation.

**Damon's** **P.O.V-**  
I taken her up to my room. She lay so peacefully. Was she… could she be… I couldn't say the word. I didn't want to say the word. She couldn't be. She was the most strongest person that I knew. Countless times she had cheated death and she would do it again. She had to do it again for me… I laughed humourlessly to myself. She wouldn't do anything for me. She didn't love me. She had made that clear from the start. She loved Stefan didn't she? Maybe Elena was right? Maybe she was just using me to become a vampire again and for protection? I shook the thoughts out of my head. No! She loved _me. _After all this time, why would she come back? Why would she choose to say goodbye to me? The old Katherine would have just left the minute there was no sign of danger. She had to love me, didn't she? Even if it was a bit.

I felt a hand touch my shoulder in comfort. I turned around to see him standing there. I grabbed him into a hug. I knew I would get him back. This world wasn't the same without him. I spent so much time thinking that I hated him but now I knew that I was wrong. He was my brother. The one who had saved me, the one who was there for me, the one who was happy for me even when he, himself, wasn't happy.  
"Its good to have you back, little brother." I said to him with a small smile.

He smiled back at me. "It's good to be back." He said. His attention turned to her still body. "Is she going to be alright?" He asked me.

"I don't know." I said softly to him. "I can't hear a heartbeat." I said as I slumped back onto the bed. I saw from the corner of my eyes that he gave me a sympathetic look.

"Katherine always has a way of sticking around, whether we like it or not." He said with a laugh. "She will make it through this." He said calmly but I could tell there was uncertainty in his voice.

"What if she doesn't?" I said voicing my fears to my brother. There was silence as Stefan put his hand on my shoulder again in comfort.

**Jeremy's P.O.V**

I had walked out of the house to get some fresh air. I could feel her follow me out here too.  
"I want to do this." I said to her trying to make her understand that this was my choice, no one else's.

"I don't want you doing this. It's not worth it." She said to me. She stood in front of me and now I was staring at her brown eyes. She touched my cheek but I couldn't feel anything. I shook of her touch in frustration.  
"Bonnie, it's my fault that you're not here anymore. You shouldn't have died." I said to her. "If this… if this kills me, then so be it. I don't want you to give up your life for me."

"As I don't want _you_ to give up your life for me. I took that chance to get you back. Just wait, wait until we know for sure that Katherine is alright. I didn't answer her. I just stared blankly into space. I was going to do this whether they liked it or now, whether Katherine lived or not. It was my choice.


	31. Chapter 31

**Hey guys, sorry that I haven't been updating as quickly as before. I'm trying to update as soon as possible. I think there will only be two or three more chapters** **left to the story. Thanks for reading and reviewing :)**

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
I heard some commotion going on downstairs. I left Damon in his room with Katherine to give him some space. I had never seen him like this. I didn't know what to do for my own brother. Space was what he needed. Actually, what he really needed was her to be alive but right now I don't think anyone knew what was happening to her. All we could was wait.

"You're not doing this." I heard Elena's voice firmly say and I assumed it was to Jeremy.  
"I am." He said back to her.  
"Please." She now begged. I heard the pain in her voice. All I wanted to do was wrap my arms around her and whisper in her ear that everything was going to be okay but I restrained myself. "We will find another way. There has to be another way. Don't do this. I can't lose you again." She said and I could hear she was on the verge of tears.  
I put my arm around her as I stood next to her. Her whole body was shaking.  
"Jeremy, why don't we just talk this through." I said trying to calm everyone down. "Don't do this to your sister." I said to him.  
I glanced at Elena from the side and she appeared to be calming down.  
"I can't! I can't be here! You don't get it." He said to us raising his voice. "Ever since I came back all I feel is guilt. I'm the reason why she is dead. She didn't have to die for me. She shouldn't have died for me." He said turning his back on all of us.

I walked up to him slowly, just stopping a few metres behind him. "I know what it's like to feel guilty. I've felt guilty for centuries. I know you want to do what's right but what about what's right for your sister?" I asked him and I could see that he was trying to breathe in slowly.  
He turned around slowly to face me. He glanced slightly at Elena as he said, "I know. I don't want to hurt her." He said and then he turned back to me. "But I can't live here anymore knowing that I'm the reason why she's dead... I just can't." He looked down at the floor now. His face was strained in pain. I wanted to help him but how could I? How could I when I was drowning in guilt as well?  
"Please don't." I heard a soft voice from behind us. I turned around to see her face. It was full of sadness but there was something behind it. It was like she knew. She knew that this was the time.  
"Bonnie, you don't mean that." Jeremy said walking passed me and towards her. He lightly touched her face, not being able to totally feel her. Their eyes met each other. She put her hand on his hand that touched her cheek and she closed her eyes.  
"It's okay." She said, her voice shaking a bit. She tried to reassure him and I think herself a bit.  
"No, no. We can do this." He kept telling her but she just shook his head.  
"It's meant to be like this." She said with a small smile. "Don't worry, I have grams." She paused and then sarcastically with a grin. "Ooh and Kol." Jeremy laughed quietly. Her tone was serious but there was compassion behind it. "I will be fine and _you_ will too. You will find someone and fall in love and be happy and laugh and do all the humanly things possible. And don't you dare feel guilty Jeremy Gilbert. I wanted this. It was my choice. Don't you dare blame yourself." She said.  
I turned away to give them a moment. I saw tears drop from his eyes just as I turned around.

I turned to face Elena and she had a look of confusion and sadness on her face.  
"They're saying goodbye." I whispered to her.  
"No. Tell her we will find a way." She said loudly turning to where Jeremy was facing. Jeremy looked up and shook his head. There was a look of resignation on his face and Elena crumpled into my arms. I held her in my arms resting my chin on her forehead.

"I love you too!" Elena said to Bonnie. They were both crying endlessly. Even though try couldn't see each other, I knew that in this moment they could feel each others presence.  
"Where's Caroline?" Bonnie asked through her crying. I looked around but Caroline wasn't anywhere around.  
"I'll go find her." I said to them. I wanted them to have as much time together as possible. It wasn't fair. None of this was fair.  
I searched the house as quickly as I could but I was so used to vampire speed that it felt like forever. She was nowhere to be seen so I went outside. I didn't have to look far when I saw two blondes standing together.

**Caroline's P.O.V**  
"You came back." I said shocked at the person standing in front of me.  
"I never left." He said quietly. He was looking in my eyes like he could look into my soul. "I know that you think I'm a monster and I've spent a very long time being a monster. I can't change what I've done or who I've been over the past years and I can't change that I'm a vampire." He said to me. I gulped as he moved closer towards me, putting his hand on my cheek. He was inches away from me now, I could even feel his breath on my skin. My heart was racing. I could feel my cheeks go a slight tinge of red. "And don't know if I can change. But what I do know is that I like you a lot. And I think I've been falling for you ever since I met you." My hand moved to his that was still on my cheek. "I don't usually beg." He said cracking a smile. "Please give me a chance? This is the last time I'll ask. If you tell me no, then I'll never bother you again." I looked at him with slightly widened eyes. My heart was telling me to go for it but my mind was stopping me. We were all monsters weren't we? But he was the biggest of them all. But he was falling in love with me? What did that matter anyway? It did though. I'm pretty sure that he never said that to anyone. It was a big deal for him to say this to me. I could feel myself moving closer to him, our lips just touching.  
"Caroline?" I heard a voice call behind. I jumped. I turned around to see Stefan. "Bonnie wants to say goodbye." He said in a serious tone.  
I had to go see Bonnie but what about Klaus? I turned back to him, his blue eyes staring back at me.

**Damon's P.O.V**  
It probably had only been a few hours but it felt like days waiting for her to open her eyes. She was so still and I couldn't hear a heartbeat at all. This wasn't normal, was it? Usually they would have a heartbeat, even if it was faint.  
"Come on." I whispered to her. I had tried talking to her like they did with coma patients but no use. I didn't know what good it would do anyway because she wasn't in a coma. But I had to try something.  
I could hear a faint beating sound. Her hand twitched a little.  
"Katherine?" I asked quickly hoping that she would respond.


	32. Chapter 32

**Hey guys thanks for reading and reviewing :)**

**Damon's P.O.V**  
"Katherine? Katherine?" I called. I couldn't imagined it, I'm a vampire. But could I? Her hand twitched, I just know it! Her hand... It couldn't be, could it? I knew that ring from anywhere. Was it her daylight ring that she used when she was a vampire? No, no it couldn't be. She had a necklace... How did I not notice this before? I could feel my heart start to race. If she was wearing that ring, it meant she could still very well be alive? Couldn't she? I could kiss that ring right now! ... But wait... She wasn't waking up. I couldn't even hear a heartbeat. Maybe it needed time. All those times Jeremy and Alaric and even John had used it, they needed time to recover. I could feel the stress start to seep out of me.

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
We had left Elena, Caroline and Bonnie to talk using Jeremy as the translator. We were all really close to Bonnie and it was hard to see her go but those three were the closest to Bonnie. I went outside to feel the fresh cool air. It felt so weird... I looked down at my hands and saw the ring that was still on it. My daylight ring. The ring that I had worn for 150 years as a necessity for my survival but now... Now I could take it off. It was bright daylight now. I played with the ring on my finger for it a bit, twisting it around. Could I take it off? Was I really human? Well, I felt the hunger for hamburgers... Which I hadn't felt for a very long time. So I was human? ... Maybe I was something different? There was only one way to find out. I slowly pushed the ring to the edge of my fingers. It was just at the tips. My heart was pulsing as I looked down at the dark blue.

**Jeremy P.O.V**  
"I will miss each and everyone one of you... Remember when we were 5 years old and we said that we would be friends forever? No matter what. That we would all marry rich guys and then live in mansions right next to each other." Bonnie said with a laugh but there were tears running down her face. "That we would never be torn apart."  
I told Elena and Caroline what Bonnie had said. Elena nodded remembering that moment in their life which they had shared. Caroline cried even more.  
"We will be friends forever. No matter what." Caroline said through sobs. "We will all be together one day." She said wiping the years from her eyes. "We'll have a girls night and eat junk food." She said with a smile, her face glistening with tears.  
Bonnie laughed. "And talk about boys! And get drunk!"  
"She said that you will all have a girls night and talk about boys and drink." I said. "I hope you guys don't talk about me!" I said with a laugh.  
"Maybe." Bonnie said with a smile.

I heard footsteps come from downstairs. We all looked up.  
"Is she okay?" I asked him as he walked into the room. Vampires were supposed to never be tired but his eyes full of exhaustion.  
He shook his head. "I don't know. She hasn't woken up yet. But she was wearing the ring. I don't know where she got it from." He said more to himself then anyone else.  
"Wait that could work. Bonnie you might not have to go!" I said getting excited.  
"Hold on." He said. "She hasn't woken up yet. I don't even know if she..." He stopped there and Elena walked towards him holding his hand.  
"Bonnie, don't go just yet. This could be the answer. I wouldn't have to become a vampire and you can be alive again!" I said with hope. My eyes lighting up at the idea.  
"Jeremy," she said softly like she was telling a child that Santa didn't exist. "I can feel a pull. I can feel myself being pulled to the other side. I have to cross over soon. I can't keep waiting. I don't have time."  
"Yes you do!" I said raising my voice. The others were looking at me confused. They didn't know what she was saying.  
"Jer." She said quietly. Her brown eyes stared into mine, wanting me to understand but I couldn't. I didn't want to. She didn't deserve this.


	33. Chapter 33

**Hey guys, thanks for reading and reviewing **** and the ending is coming **** sorry this is a short chapter!**

Stefan's P.O.V  
The daylight ring dropped to the ground and I waited for the excruciating pain. The burning. I cringed, waiting… But nothing happened. I felt normal. There was no burning, no pain. I was human! I didn't need a daylight ring! But then everything hit me… What did that mean for Elena and me? If there was an us. We would still have the same problem as before but this time it would be different. She wouldn't be getting old but I would be getting old. What life would we have now?

Damon's P.O.V  
We were all-silent for a moment and that's when I heard it. I heard moment from upstairs, the ruffle of bed covers. I went up there as fast as I could. Even with my super speed it was too slow. It had to be her. She was the only one up there.

Just as I opened the door, I halted to a stop. Her brown hair flowed down passed her shoulders. Her big brown eyes contrasted with her pale skin. She sat up in the bed, her eyes were tired and she looked completely exhausted.

"Damon," Her eyes brightening. She tried to get up but fell back to the pillow. I rushed to her, holding her up. "It worked." She said with a smile. Her brown eyes were twinkling.

"It worked." I repeated softly. My hand brushed against her cheek. Our eyes met and her lips were inches away from me. Her soft breath on my face. I moved in closer to her, our lips just touching. I felt her soft lips on mine. It was a nice, gentle kiss, which turned into a passionate one. My hands cupped her cheeks and her hands ran through my hair. It felt so good… no, that wasn't the right word. It felt so right.

I pulled apart bit and looked into her brown eyes, "Katerina Petrova." I said. "Even when you're human, you keep me on my toes." I said with a laugh.

She smiled at me, "Well, I know how you love being kept on your toes."  
"I love _you._" It had slipped out my mouth. It was supposed to have been a silent thought. I held my breath as her eyes widened.

She paused for a second, her eyes looking at the bed. She glanced up like a child with wide eyes in wonder. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something. She hesitated and then closed it again.

"I love you too." She said looking back up at me. "I love you too." She said again. She smiled like she finally found something knew about herself. I pulled her into a kiss again.

"She's alive." I heard a voice say from the doorway.


	34. Chapter 34

**Elena's P.O.V**  
I stood in the doorway staring at them. I had wanted to make sure that Damon was okay and that he didn't gotten his hopes up. I had never thought this would work. The spell. All of it. But as I stood there and saw the two of them together, it showed me everything that I had never thought would happen. I never thought that she would make it out alive. I never thought that I would be the one standing here and watching someone else with Damon. But I wasn't jealous, there wasn't a jealous bone in me... I was happy for them especially for Damon. He had finally got the girl. It wasn't me, it was never me. It was always going to be Katherine. Like for me, it was always going to be Stefan. We had both finally got what we most desired for. My lips curved into a smile at that thought but then it was gone in a second because my best friend was still dead. We could never win.

I walked down the steps first, followed by Damon supporting Katherine. She was still very weak from the spell. It must not have worked very well... Vampires were strong, more stronger then anything on the planet. Well, maybe not everything. Werewolves had equivalent physical strength. Maybe she needed blood?  
"So it works. What are we waiting for?" Jeremy said quickly looking from Katherine to Anna.  
"Wait a minute. I don't think it quite exactly worked out perfectly." Damon said to him, holding up his hand. "Can't you hear it? Her heartbeat." We all stared at her. For the first time, it wasn't out of hate but curiousity. We all heard the thumping sound. Our eyes widened.  
"How is she still human?" I was the first one to speak up.  
"Maybe she's in transition?" Jeremy pointed out.  
Damon held her hand up to us and that's when I saw it. The immortality ring. It was the same as Alarics. Same as Jeremy's.  
"But I'd be thirsty?" She said. "All I feel like is food. Human food. I know what it's like to be in transition. It's nothing to how I feel now. I feel human." She said.  
"Weren't you the one who wanted to be a vampire? Why didn't you just take the ring off?" I asked her.  
"I had to be safe. I had to know that no matter what I was going to make it out alive." She said and then she looked at Damon. Her eyes were saddened. "I'm still the same person I was before." She said looking down. "I stole the ring off you guys when Elena was at college and there was hardly anyone here. I'm human and more vulnerable then ever, I needed something to keep me safe." She explained to us.  
"I was keeping you safe." Damon said in a hard tone. I could see it in his face now. There was a bit of uncertainty towards Katherine now.  
"I needed to be sure. Back then, after everything I had done to all of you, I thought you wouldn't help me... I thought you would leave me out to die." She explained to him. She looked like she needed him to understand.  
"I would never have done that." He said.  
Katherine opened her mouth but before she could speak, Jeremy cut in. "So the spell did work and she's still alive." He said. He then turned to a space that seemed empty and said, "now we can do the spell. We are sure."  
"No Jer." I said through gritted teeth. "Believe me, I want Bonnie back more then anything but it will be at the cost of your sanity. Remember what happened to Alaric?" I pointed out.  
"It won't happen to me." He said stubbornly.  
"How do you know?" I said to him raising my voice. How could he be so sure.  
"I'll do it." Someone said from the door way. I knew it was him from the second I heard the voice. "I've never warn the ring before. It won't affect me as much as it will affect Jeremy." He saw the expression on y face and walked towards me. He was only inches away from me now. "Trust me, I can do it. I won't leave you." He whispered holding my hands close to his heart. His green eyes were locked with mine. There was something so trusting about the way he said it. It was like he knew he would always come back to me. Like we would always be together. Deep down, I knew he was right. We would always find our way to each other in the end.  
"Okay." I said softly to him.

**Thanks for reading and reviewing :) hope you guys are enjoying it! Only a few more chapters left.**


	35. Chapter 35

**Elena's P.O.V**  
I held my breath as they did the spell. My brain kept thinking what if this time it doesn't work? What happens then? Stefan looked at me as Anna was doing the spell. I could see a glib of fear in his eyes but he tried to keep his face from any emotion. He had taken my blood just in case it didn't work and Katherine gave him back the ring.

I watched as Anna said the last words. I ran towards him as his knees buckled. He fell into my arms. I lifted him in my arms and took him upstairs. I sat down next to him, waiting. It had taken Katherine hours to wake up so it would probably take him roughly the same amount of time.  
It had been hours since the spell had taken place. I still couldn't hear the heartbeat in him or see any movement. I just had to remind myself that it took time. I felt a presence behind me.  
"He's going to be alright." I heard a voice say behind me. "It worked for Katherine, it will work for him."  
I turned around to see one of my best friends standing there. Alive and well.  
"Thank god you're okay." I said pulling Bonnie into a hug. "Welcome back."  
We stayed like that for a few minutes. There were tears in our eyes. I don't think I've cried as much as I have in the last few days or even last few months.  
"It's so good to have you back! You don't know how much I missed having you here." I said through my silent tears.  
"I missed you too!" She said with tears running down her face. "But no more crying." She said straightening up and wiping away her tears. "This is a happy day. Stefan will come back. You just have to have hope. He would want you to have hope ."

**Damon's P.O.V**  
Katherine stirred in her sleep. I had sat in the guest bedroom while Katherine slept there. Katherine was still so weak from the spell. It had taken a lot of the energy out of her. I didn't want to see Stefan just yet. I have Elena some time to be alone with him. I had wanted some space when Katherine was in the same position as Stefan so I could understand what Elena was now going through.

Her eyes fluttered open and she scanned the room until her eyes lay on me.  
"What-what are you doing here?" She said through a yawn.  
"Well, since this is my home..." I said to her.  
She shook her head and said, "No, no I meant I thought you would be somewhere else. With your brother or ... Elena. But not here with me." She said to me confused.  
I looked at her for a moment. "Why did you come back." I said to her.  
"I came back for you." She said after a pause. "I ran into Anna and she told me all about the spell and how it works. I was already on my way bak when she told me. I wanted to help you. I could see that you needed your brother." She explained to me.  
"Is that the truth?" I asked her and she just nodded. "I want to believe you. You don't know how much I want to believe you but after all the lies that you've told over the years. I spent 150 years looking for you! And then to find out that you weren't really in the tomb... That you had been on the run and you didn't even bother to look for me. And then you come back and tell me that you had only loved Stefan... What am I supposed to think? Was I only a form of protection for you?" I said letting it all out. I had this anger in me that I couldn't contain. She was still the same Katherine that I had always known. The only thing different this time was I chose to believe her.  
She looked down and shook her head.  
"How am I supposed to believe you?" I asked her, it had a sort of desperation in it. I wanted to believe her so much. I've been falling for girls that were always in love with my brother... I wanted this time to be different.  
"I don't know." She said softly.  
I just looked at her for a moment, not knowing what to do and then I just walked out of the room.

**Hey guys, only one or two more chapters left. I hope you have enjoyed the story. It's been such fun to write about. Thank you for reading and reviewing :) **


	36. Chapter 36

**Damon's P.O.V**  
"He's still not woken up?" It was a stupid question to ask but I didn't know what else to say. She jumped and turned around. Her eyes were red and puffy. I grabbed a chair and sat next to her. "He will, Katherine did." I said but there was uncertainty which lingered in my tone. All spells worked differently on people. Spells were like medicine, there was a 70-90% chance that it would work depending on the difficulty of the spell and the other 30-10% was that there would either be a side effect or the person wouldn't make it. Since this spell brought back the dead, there was less then 70% chance that it would work. For all our sakes, I wish it did work.

"Damon, I'm sorry." Elena whispered to me like she was trying not to wake Stefan up. Her dragged me out of my thinking.  
"What for?" I asked her confused.  
"Everything. I didn't mean to pull you along. I honestly thought that I loved you. I did love you. I still do but-"  
"But not as much as Stefan." I said to her sighing. "You're not the first girl and funnily enough you look exactly the same as her." I could tell she was hurting and I didn't want to be the jerk to hurt her. To be honest, she shouldn't be sorry at all. She made me realize how deeply in love I was with Katherine. It wasn't her fault. "You can't help who you are in love with." I said to her. I gave her a small smile.  
She took my hand in hers. And for the first time, I realised that my heart didn't jump like it did before. It was like a sister or a friend holding my hand. Nothing more. I got up quickly.  
"I'm so sorry. I have to go find someone but call me when he wakes up." I said to her and she just nodded. "Thank you." I told her. "Thank you for being there for him. You both deserve each other."  
Her gaze didn't look into my eyes anymore. There was something saddened about her expression.  
"I can stay if you want?" I offered her.  
"No, no go. I'll be fine." She said giving me a smile but I could tell that she was faking it. I didn't know what to do. Could I leave her when she was so upset? "Seriously I'll be fine. Thank you Damon." She said shooing me off. I took one last glance back at her, she was facing Stefan holing his hands in hers.

I rushed back to where I last saw her. The bed was empty. She couldn't have gone by now, could she? She couldn't have just left. I checked all around the house and outside as well but she was nowhere to be seen. I saw Bonnie, Jeremy and Caroline outside.  
"Where's Katherine?" I asked them.  
"She got in the car and went somewhere." Caroline said shrugging.  
"And you just let her!" I shouted at them. "She is still weak. What if... What if something happened to her?" I asked them. They didn't say anything but just looked towards the ground.  
"We're sorry Damon. She just said she needed to be somewhere and that she would be back." Bonnie said to me with a sympathetic look.  
"She's coming back?" I said confused. Where could she possibly go?  
"That's what she said," Jeremy said shrugging.  
Would she come back? I sighed. Lets hope so.

**Elena's P.O.V**  
"Stefan?" I called to him as I watched him try to get up. "Hey, hey take it easy." I said as I tried to make him get back down.  
"How long was I out for?" He asked me as he laid back down on the bed. His head rested on the head board behind him.  
"Just a couple of hours." I said simply to him.  
He was now looking into my eyes, he raised his hand which touched the side of my cheek. "Everything is alright now. Everything is fine now." He soothed, stroking my hair.  
"I nearly thought I lost you. I don't think my heart could take it anymore." I said to him. "If I- if I... I don't know what I would do if I lost you again." I said through sobs.  
"You won't lose me. Hey, hey." He said as I looked into his green eyes. "I'm right here. You won't have to lose me again. I'll always be right here with you." He said pulling me into his chest. My head rested there as he stroked my hair. I could feel my breathing start to slow down.  
I pulled my head up a bit and looked into his eyes. "I love you so much." I said to him softly.  
His eyes lightened up, "I love you. Always will." He said pulling my lips to his. If my heart could still beat, it would probably be going 100km/h. It started out soft but it quickly got heated. It felt like a person tasting chocolate for the first time.

I pulled a part a bit and grabbed his hands leading him somewhere. It took so much of my control to stop him from kissing me.  
"Where are we going?" He asked me.  
"You'll see." I said to him with a mysterious smile. He put his arms around my waist as I lead him away to our place.

**Damon's P.O.V**  
I sat on the edge of my bed, waiting for her to come back. That's if she was going to come back. Old habits die hard.  
"Damon?" I heard her say from the doorway. I looked up and saw that she was shaken.  
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" I asked her as I rushed towards her. I saw blood staining her hands and her clothes and her face. I looked around to see where it was coming from and then realised that it wasn't hers. I moved back a bit. "What- what happened?"  
"I-I... I don't know. I was trying to make something special for you like normal humans do. Those you know big gestures but then I was so thirsty so I went to The Grill..." She paused for a bit horrified about what she had done. "There was a couple there and I..." She looked towards the ground. "I was just so thirsty. I hadn't realised what I was doing until-until they were both dead on the floor." She said putting her hands on her hand. "I know that I've done it before but this time... I mean I was just so getting used to being human. I think a part of me wanted to stay human that's why I still had the ring on me but... But it must not have worked." She said starting to cry.  
"So-so you're a vampire now?" I asked her. She just nodded her head. I looked at her for a bit. What did it matter? She was still the same person as before. I had loved her when she was a vampire. I took her into my arms as she silently cried.

We stayed like that for god knows how long. All I knew was that I never wanted to let her go. I could hear her start to stop crying.  
"So what was this big gesture that you had planned?" I asked her changing the subject. I hated seeing her so upset.  
She raised her head slightly from my chest and her big brown eyes were looking up into my blue eyes. "I was going to make you dinner." She said.  
I started laughing. "That was your big gesture. All I need is a blood bag."  
"Hey I haven't cooked for years but I guess now it would be easy since we both eat the same things." She said punching my arm lightly. She pressed her lips a bit tightly together. "I guess it wasn't so big after all. I was going to make you a human dinner but now thinking about it, that was probably a horrible idea." She said more to herself.  
"Thank you. It was thoughtful of you but you know what I just realised?" I asked her and she just shook her head. "Is that I love you. I love you more then anything in the world. And you haven't changed. You're the person you always was... Just a little less crazy." I said cracking a smile at her and she punched me again but she was smiling now. "You're still the most beautiful woman I have ever known."  
"That's not really saying much since I have a doppelgänger who you fell in love with," she said with a laugh.  
"No, not just your looks. You. I love the outside and especially the inside. You were just so good at concealing who you truly were. And now I see you for who you truly are and I don't know how but I love you even more. You're so strong, funny, brave and fierce." I said to her and then I felt her lips on mine. Her sweet soft lips as she caressed my cheeks.

**Elena's P.O.V**  
"Where are we?" I heard him say. "I mean why are we here? I didn't really think this was 'our place'" he said and I could hear the confusion in his voice.  
I turned around to look at him. The night sky was out and the stars hung above us. The soft wind blew past us and ruffled our hair. Our lips were nearly touching as we gazed into each others eyes.  
"It's the place where my parents had died but it is also the place where we first met... Even if I don't quite remember." She said with a laugh at the end. "This was a horrible time for me and I didn't know if I could ever feel again... But then you came along and I just knew... I knew that I could get through this time, that I could get through anything with you by my side." I said to him as I caressed his cheek. I tiptoed on my toes to pull him into a kiss. Everything felt right in the world. I had my both my best friends, Damon was happy, my brother was back and Stefan... Stefan was back. My Stefan.

"Wait." I said pulling out of the kiss. I could see his brows crease. "I have a few more places to show you." I said grabbing his hand and pulling him along.

We were now at the school. I lead him towards the front office.  
"This was the first place I saw you." I said to him as we walked into the office. It was still the same as the first day Stefan came here. "You were facing this way with your back towards the door and Bonnie was saying how you had a sexy back." I said with a smile.  
He laughed and checked over his shoulder pretending to look at his back. "I do have a sexy back." He said jokingly and I punched him lightly on his arm, laughing. "Mmm do you think I have a sexy behind?"  
"Mmm... Yea, not really." I lied as I laughed. He pulled me towards him playfully tickling me.  
"Sorry what was that?" He said laughing as he tickled me some more.  
I couldn't breathe from laughing so much. "Stefan. Stefan, stop!" I said through breaths as I tried to control myself. "I... Can't... Breathe."  
He stopped tickling me but pulled me closer towards him. I could smell his sweet scent from where I was standing.  
"I have another place to show you." I said to him pulling him along.  
"Another place?" He said raising his eyebrows and I just nodded.

"The gym?" He asked as we stood in the big gym.  
"Even though we have had a lot of people that wanted to kill us come here, we have had so many dances and so many experiences in this one gym." I said to him.  
"Klaus." He said pressing his lips tightly together.  
"Yes, the night where he compelled you to bite me. The night where I knew that you were the one I wanted to be with. The night where my humanity was off and you tried to make me feel again and you did. I just didn't want to admit it. That night every single memory that we ever shared came back to me. I just didn't want to open that box. I was scared of what it would make me feel. Of what I had lost. Of having lost you." I told him and I could feel my eyes start to water.  
"You could never lose me." He said wiping the one year that had escaped.  
"You say that now but after everything that I had done to you, I wouldn't have been surprised if you fell for someone else." I said to him taking a deep breath. I was trying to control myself but tear after tear escaped. "I... I was so scared. So scared of losing you. The decision I made to be with you just before I turned was probably the best decision I have ever made in my life. Everything after that just seemed so wrong, I was just so empty after that and now I know why. It was because of you. Because I had let you go." I said. He pulled me into a hug and I could see the tears that were forming in his eyes.

There was one more place to show him. We stood outside the Salvatore house. Everyone was still inside the house.  
"This. This is the place where I first told you that I loved you. Ever since then or even probably before that I have never stopped loving you, whether I knew it or not. I will always love you and I am so sorry for everything. If you have me, I want to spend the rest of our lives together. I want to travel with you, go to college together, share some more experiences with you. You've been there for me and believed in me when no one else has. You've gotten me through times that I had never thought I'd come out of. And you've changed me for the better. I just hope that I can be the person that you are proud of, that you fell in love with and that you want to spend the rest of your life with. Because I knew that you are all those things to me." I said to him wiping away his tears.  
"You already are those things to me. You have always been since the moment I met you. I love you, Elena Gilbert." He said and then he pulled me into a kiss and I felt my whole world start spinning so fast. I never wanted this moment to end. I never wanted this feeling to end. I was the luckiest person in the world.

**Thank you everyone for reading this story! I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Unfortunately, there will only be one more chapter left. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read and review! It really means so much to me!**


	37. Chapter 37

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
"Stefan! Stefan, what's wrong?" I heard her voice next to me. She put her hands on my cheek as I clutched at my throat. It had felt dry ever since I had woken up after the spell but I just thought it was my need for water. I hadn't drunken water in almost 150 years. But now that dryness was all I could think about. It was like I was rubbing sandpaper up and down my throat. I felt Elena's arm go around me as I swayed a bit. "Stefan? Stefan-" I tried to listen to what she was saying but all I could think of was one thing. Blood.

**Damon's P.O.V**  
We laid on the bed, in bliss. Nothing that was going on outside of this room mattered to me right now. As long as she stayed there in my arms. That was all that mattered to me.  
"So what now?" She asked me as she stared at the ceiling. Her fingers were intertwined with mine.  
"What do you mean?" I asked her. "Anything you want." I said to her.  
"No, I mean what do we do now? Where do we go from here?" She asked me. She was now getting out of my arms and sat up in front of me. I groaned as she pulled away.  
"I don't know, anything I guess. As long as I'm with you." I said to her pulling to me.  
"How about Europe?" I raised my eyebrows. "Well, I mean I haven't been to Europe recently and it would be amazing to go together." She said leaning forward, her lips almost touching mine.  
"Traveling, huh?" I said thinking about it. What about Stefan?  
"We could go to Rome and Paris and Greece and everywhere!" She said excitedly kissing me. "We have all of eternity."  
"All of eternity." I said smiling at that sentence. I finally got the girl and now I could spend the rest of eternity with her. It was worth the wait.

**Caroline's P.O.V**  
"Can you guys stop it for just a moment?" I said exasperatedly. Bonnie and Jeremy were at it again. They pulled apart laughing.  
"What is it, Caroline?" She said smiling with her hand in Jeremy's.  
"Okay, well-" I stopped for a second and looked at my best friend. Would she agree with me? Would she hate me for it? "I know you're probably going to think I'm stupid but..."  
"Caroline, we would never think you are stupid." Bonnie said.  
"I know, I know. It's just- okay, here it goes... I want to go to New Orleans." I said the last part really quickly ad waited for their anger or disapproval.  
Bonnie opened her mouth and the closed it again. She didn't know what to say.  
"Are you sure?" She finally asked me.  
I paused for a moment. "Yes, I think so. I mean there's only one way to find out." I said with a shrug. "I'm just scared that I will regret it. He's sweet and his accent and I know he's done bad things but haven't we all?" I asked more to myself then to them.  
"Then Caroline Forbes, it is about time you got happiness. You, of all people, deserve it." She said to me.  
I hugged her tightly and said, "thank you so much. I don't know what I would do without you. I am so glad you are back. You have no idea." I said to her.

**Stefan's P.O.V**  
I had hurried off into the house, Elena walking beside me. I wasn't paying close attention to anything anymore. I could think about was that red liquid going down my throat. Every part of me itched for it. I just needed a drop, maybe two or three?

I could hear faintly someone calling me but I didn't turn around. I was now in the basement with a whole basement full of it. I ripped the door open to the fridge and started drinking down the first blood bag. It felt like honey flowing through my throat, soothing me. Then I drank the second blood bag. I was starting to get control of my body now, and my thoughts. Footsteps had stopped behind me and I turned around with blood dripping from the corners of my mouth. They all stared in shock.

**Hey guys, I am so sorry this is such a late post! I know I said this would be the last one but I think there might be one more. Hope you guys enjoy and thank you for reading and reviewing! x**


	38. Chapter 38

**I'm so so so sorry for the late post! But been so busy lately.. However I did watch the recent episode of vampire diaries. My stelena heart breaks :( although I still have hope for them!**

Stefan's P.O.V  
I could feel their eyes watching me but I didn't want to look. I knew what their expressions would be... It was the same as mine. Shock. Wasn't I supposed to be a human? Hadn't the ring worked? Wait, what about Katherine? If I was like this, wouldn't she be the same?... I clutched at my head. So many thoughts were racing through it. So many questions.

I heard footsteps slowly walk towards me, hesitant.  
"Stefan?" It was barely a whisper. I didn't look up. I just stared at the floor as I sat there with blood dripping from the corners of my mouth. "Stefan... Are-are you okay?" She said squatting down beside me. Her hand reached towards mine.  
I didn't know what to say. Was I okay?  
"What's going on-" I heard Katherine say from the doorway but she immediately stopped. "That means it wasn't only my ring." She said almost to herself. My eyes jolted towards her. It wasn't only me. The same thing had happened to her.  
"What do you mean?" Elena said raising her eyebrows.  
"The spell must have been too strong for the ring. The vampire blood coursing through our veins must have been the thing that saved us." She explained. "He's a vampire, just like me, just like you and almost everybody in this room."  
Everyone's eyes were back on me.  
"It's okay." I said quietly. "It's okay." I repeated again more to elena. I could feel her panic.  
"How's-how's your thirst?" She asked. I knew what she was thinking. That I was going to become the rippah again.  
"It's seemingly under control." I said clutching my throat. "I feel like I'm in control."  
"And you're okay about... About not being human?" She asked hesitantly.  
I looked into her big brown eyes. My hand caressed her cheek. "I get to be with you for the rest of eternity. That is more then anything I could ask or dream of. It's what I've always wanted. You." I told her and our lips touched. Her lips on mine felt so good. The kiss started getting heated and I could hear a cough in the background. We parted lips and laughed.

"Isn't it funny how everything worked out?" Caroline said with the biggest grin on her face. "We are all alive. I have my best friends back, Jeremy is with Bonnie, Damon is with Katherine, Stefan is with elena, Silas is gone and I'm going to New Orleans to see klaus."  
"Wait what?!" I said at the last part. Klaus? I always knew that he had a crush on her but was she for real?  
"I'm going to see klaus." She said looking down.  
Elena squeezed my hand. "Are you sure?" She said looking at Caroline. "I mean after everything he did?"  
"I know all the wrong that he's done but what about all of us? We're no different from him. Maybe I should just give him a chance... I feel something that I've never felt before when I'm with him."  
Katherine shivered. "Sorry," she said. "But he and I just don't get along."  
"If that's what you want then go for it." Elena said. "But I am going to miss you."  
"I will always visit of course." Caroline said. Elena got up to hug her and Bonnie joined in as well. I smiled at seeing elena happy, it was always what I wanted.  
"She's not the only one leaving. We are too." Damon said looking at me.  
"What?" I asked.  
"Europe! Vacation! Fun!" Katherine said with excitement.  
"Yea, everything she just said." Damon told me as he kissed the side of her forehead.  
"Will you come back?" I asked him.  
"No." He said and then he smirked. "Of course, how would I go on without teasing my baby brother." He told me.  
Damon and I had always had this mutual understanding of our brotherly love and respect for each other even though we never said it. He was the only family that I had left.

"I'll be seeing you guys around." Damon said as we hugged. "Try not to get into too much trouble here as I won't be around to save the day." He said with a smile.  
I gave Katherine a hug as well. After how many years of truly disliking her, she was the one that made my brother truly happy and that's all I ever wanted.  
"Welcome to the family." I told her and she smiled.  
I waved as they left for the airport. After years of being with Damon, it felt so weird to not have him around. I had gotten used to him alway being there. I stood there for a moment letting it all in.

I turned back around and walked to another car. It was Caroline's. Bonnie and Elena and Caroline were there crying while Jeremy tried to console all of them.  
"I guess it's time to say goodbye." Caroline said through sobs.  
"For now. Goodbye for now." Bonnie said hugging Caroline again. "You will visit every week!"  
"Of course of course, I'm too scared of your witchy powers!" She said with a scared look.  
"I'll miss you so much!" Elena said hugging Caroline as tears rolled down her face.  
"As I will too." Caroline said. Bonnie's joined in on the hug. "I love you both so much!"  
"I love you too." They both said crying. Jeremy just shook his head in amazement.  
"You guys are going to see each other again. You know that right?" He said.  
"Hey, you take care of Bonnie, okay!" Caroline said.  
"Of course." He said. Caroline gave him a hug as well.  
"And you." She said turning to me. "You take care of elena and yourself. I know we haven't talked that much since everything happened but it so good to have you back." She said pulling me into a hug. "You got the girl." She said in my ear.  
I smiled. "Thank you for everything." I said to her. "If anything goes wrong, we are just a call away." I said to her and she smiled nodding.  
She gave the girls one last hug and got into the car. She honked the horn as she left waving.

"So now what?" Elena said as we stood there.  
"Well I don't know about you guys but Bonnie and I are going off to have fun." He said with a smile as he held Bonnie and Bonnie just stood there giggling.  
"Don't have too much fun. Curfew is at 10pm remember?" Stefan said in a jokingly fatherly tone.  
"We won't." They said as they walked away giggling.  
I looked at Elena.  
"I guess it's just us." I told her.  
"Forever and ever." She said and I pulled her into a kiss.

**Thank you guys so much for reading and reviewing! Hope you all enjoyed this story as much as I have writing** **it!**


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